Teaching English- 1 Course Code: EDBN- 1523 Bachelor of Education (BEd) Program Module: 1 & 3 Writers Mariam Begum Associate Professor, IER, University of Dhaka (Session: 9 - 17) Irene Parvin Assistant Professor, School of Education, BOU (Session: 1 - 8) Md. Abdul Karim Assistant Professor, Teacher’s Training College, Mymensingh (Session: 23 – 29, 32 - 33) Nafisa Begum Lecturer, Teacher’s Training College, Dhaka (Session: 18 – 22, 30, 31) Editors Mariam Begum Associate Professor, IER, University of Dhaka (Session: 1 – 8, 18 - 22, 30 - 31) Nafisa Begum Lecturer, Teacher’s Training College, Dhaka (Session: 9 – 17, 23 – 29, 32 - 33) School of Education Bangladesh Open University Working For Quality Bangladesh Open University Teaching English- 1 Course Code: EDBN- 1523 BEd Program First Print September, 2008 First Revised Edition February, 2010 Re-Print November,2011 January, 2012 February, 2014 Bangladesh Open University Page Layout Sahabuddin Molla ISBN: 984-34-0081-X Publisher Publishing, Printing and Distribution Division Bangladesh Open University, Gazipur- 1705 Printed by S. R. Printing Press Ltd 85/1, Naya Palton, Dhaka- 1000 Preface The phenomena of knowledge and skill never stand still, so there has always been a hunt for innovations and dynamism. To meet with these challenges Bangladesh Open University (BOU), since its inception has been playing a significant role in the field of education by providing distance education to the people who are deprived of or who can not afford formal education system. It is evident that this has been a major shift from the age old face to face teaching learning system. Among all the programs of Open University, teacher education program is the most acclaimed and appreciated one while it has a huge number of consumers. For this reason the materials used in this program are required to be rewritten to match up with the latest knowledge and skills. To keep pace with the changes that have been happening in the field of education, the education materials have, therefore, been reviewed, revised, and rewritten. This was done under the Teaching Quality Improvement is Secondary Education Project (TQI-SEP) which started working in 2005 with the aim of developing the quality of the teachers in various subjects. As part of this, Teaching English material has been developed to suit the revised curriculum introducing participatory approach in distance learning mode. The main focus of this material is on the teaching practices. The School of Education and TQI-SEP worked hard to make a quality difference. All the credits go to TQI-SEP for developing and implementing the new program, which is really commendable. It is expected that this program will be able to produce a bunch a quality and skilled teachers in Bangladesh which will definitely change the teacher education scenario in near future. Project Director TQI-SEP Ministry of Education, Dhaka Dean School of Education Bangladesh Open University Contents SESSION TITLE PAGE 1. Positive English Teacher 1 9 2. ELT in Bangladesh 16 3. Introduction to Directed Study 27 4. ELT Methodology and Approaches 38 5. An Introduction to Communicative Language Teaching 47 6. Teaching Listening 1 60 7. Lesson Planning 1 72 8. Teaching Speaking 1 83 9. Classroom Resources 1 92 10. Teaching Reading 1 100 11. Teaching Pronunciation 1 109 12. Teaching Writing 1 116 13. Lesson Planning 2 122 14. Teaching Vocabulary 1 129 15. Classroom Management 1 136 16. Introduction to Microteaching 143 17. Demonstration Lesson 1 150 18. Curriculum Studies 1 152 19. Curriculum Studies 2 165 20. Curriculum Studies 3 176 SERIAL TITLE PAGE - Directed Study 1 21. Teaching Listening 2 188 22. Teaching Listening 3 203 - Directed Study 2 23. Teaching Reading 2 215 24. Teaching Reading 3 223 - Directed Study 3 25. Teaching Speaking 2 232 26. Teaching Speaking 3 244 27. Teaching Speaking 4 252 - Directed Study 4 28. Teaching Writing 2 262 29. Teaching Writing 3 277 30. Teaching Vocabulary 2 284 31. Teaching Vocabulary 3 292 - Directed Study 5 32 Teaching Pronunciation 2 306 33 Teaching Pronunciation 3 317 Module: 1 & 3 Secondary Teachers Training Session 1 Positive English Teacher-1 Introduction There are many reasons why people become teachers. It is a rewarding job which helps teachers build a nation, equip children with the skills to face the practical, professional and emotional challenges of life, and pass Teaching rewarding job, on cultural knowledge. This profession allows you to watch others learn, build nation, equip to install confidence, to help children make the transition into adulthood, children with skills, install confidence, and can bring a great deal of satisfaction. Of course there are many use of teaching challenges involved but the rewards of seeing a generation grow and aids, class succeed in facing life with confidence and ability often outweighs these interesting, offers problems. A good teacher is a good friend for his students. Using different security, status, respect, salary low teaching aids he will be able to make the class interesting. but compensation is there. As well as personal satisfaction and professional development (you never stop learning when you are working with learners), the profession of teaching also offers security, status and respect within the community, access to a team of colleagues who can support you in your professional development, and the chance to make a difference. Your life can have a good sense of routine, a regular working day, as well as good holidays. Admittedly the salary is not high, but these are some compensation! Objectives After studying this lesson you will be able to articulate why you want to be a teacher state the positive sides of a teaching job reflect on positive role models in your own life categories the positive aspects of a good teacher 9 Teaching English- 1 Section A: Reasons for becoming a teacher Those who are the students of B Ed, are the school teachers or would be teachers. Think yourself why you became a teacher or why you want to be a teacher and write down the points: 1. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section B: Positive aspects of teaching Now think, what the positive aspects of teaching are. Write your opinion: 1. ----------------------------------------------2. ----------------------------------------------3. ----------------------------------------------4. ----------------------------------------------- Section C: Role models from own school experience Many people become teachers because of positive role models from their own time in school. Teachers often teach in the same way that they were taught, copying the style and approach of someone they admired. 10 Secondary Teachers Training Imagine you are a child again. You’re in school. You’re walking along the corridor to your classroom. You see your favourite teacher. You smile and wave. Your teacher smiles at you and also waves. Look at this teacher. Describe his or her appearance. What about this teacher’s personality? Think about the positive and negative aspects of his or her character. Why do you like this teacher so much? What does this teacher do in the classroom that makes you love the subject? Why is this teacher different from the others? Ans. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section D: What makes a good teacher? If you want to be a good teacher you need to have some qualities. These are knowledge, skills and attitudes. [skills are what a teacher does, knowledge is what she knows about teaching and about the language, and attitudes are the way she feels about the students and about teaching.] Good teachers, good qualities, knowledge, skills, attitudes What makes a good teacher? Look at the following points. They all refer to the necessary skills, knowledge and attitudes that a good teacher needs to possess. Can you divide them into three categories and write them in the columns below? 11 Teaching English- 1 write lesson plans, positive feelings about education, give clear instructions, school rules, patient, exam system, manage discipline, gender sensitive, explain difficult concepts, national educational policy, positive feelings about the subject, methodology well-organized mark tests and exams, syllabus, listen to students’ problems set tests and exams, conscientious about duties A good teacher should be able to… (skills) e.g. write lesson plans A good teacher should know… (knowledge) e.g. subject 12 A good teacher should be/have… (attitudes) e.g. positive feelings about education Secondary Teachers Training Positive English Teacher- 1 Key Learning Points A good teacher will make the classroom environment friendly. He will be cooperative and helpful to his students. He will come to the class being well prepared and with proper lesson plan. He will engage his students in activities; students will work more and speak more. The teacher will speak less and will work as a facilitator. He will be able to handle teaching aids properly and effectively. In their own development as teachers, those who taught them influence many practitioners both consciously and subconsciously. It is clear that many of our formative moments happened in the classroom- we spent many years of our lives there, after all. Our own teachers were strong role models in schools, irrespective of whether they were good or bad as teachers. However, it is often their behaviour rather than their actual knowledge, which stays with us. We remember both their attitudes their behaviour long after we may have forgotten the content of what they said. This has clear implications for the way we behave as teachers. May be our own students will look back on us with affection or with horror many years into the future. Looking back and remembering both positive and negative role models can help us identify the skills, knowledge and attitudes, which we most want to cultivate in ourselves. By considering these real live examples of teaching in action, we can help develop our own sense of the kind of teacher we want to be, and then work towards that goal. Good teachers seem to have a combination of many factors. They clearly have a great deal of subject knowledge, which enables them to teach with confidence and authority. This is coupled with knowledge of methodology, 13 Teaching English- 1 of psychology, of the curriculum of course, and of many other aspects of educational life. This is crucial, but it is not the only quality we need to see in teachers. Knowledge on its own is not enough. We need to be able to communicate that knowledge, and for that we need a number of practical teaching skills. In a school setting, we need to be able to express ourselves clearly, but we also need skills to create the conditions for successful learning, such as planning, selecting learning activities, developing a positive atmosphere, and managing the class, the resources and the learning environment. However, both skills and knowledge also need the support of positive attitudes. A teacher who is unmotivated or negative about the process of teaching and learning is unlikely to inspire learners to work hard in class and take the initiative outside class. On the other hand, a teacher who is enthusiastic, and who shows a positive attitude both to the subject and to the learners, is much more likely to create engaged learners, who are therefore more likely to succeed both inside and outside the class. His or her attitudes to people will also affect the motivation of learners – we have seen from our own experience how we remember with affection those teachers who behaved well for us. It is also very likely that we learned a great deal more in their classes. Once we have identified these key skills, knowledge and attitudes, we should try to cultivate them for ourselves. Assessment of your learning 1. If you want to be a good teacher, which qualities would you need to have and what is the impact of those qualities on learning? 14 Secondary Teachers Training Probable Answers Section A: Reasons for becoming a teacher 1. Teaching is a noble profession 2. Teachers are serving the nation 3. I like this profession 4. I like to teach Section B: Positive aspects of teaching Benefits – part of long educational tradition/important role in society/motivating and rewarding work/educating the next generation Colleagues – supportive/friendly/able to help with classroom problems Students – friendly/loving/enthusiastic/helpful/respectful Working environment – predictable work/organized timetable/short working day Section C: Role models from own school experience 1. friendly 2. cooperative 3. helpful 4. nice presentation Section D: What makes a good teacher? skills Write lesson plans knowledge attitudes positive feelings about subject education Give instructions positive feelings about syllabus subject Explain difficult concepts school rules patient Listen to students’ problems Manage discipline methodology well-organized exam system gender sensitive Set tests and exams national education policy conscientious Mark tests and exams about duties 15 Teaching English- 1 Session 2 ELT in Bangladesh Introduction English is an international language and it is widely used as a first or second language in many countries of the world today. The achievement English widely used international/secon d language, foreign language in Bangladesh, compulsory from class 1 to 12 of English speaking people in science and technology, in trade and commerce and in education and research has made English the most important language in the world. That is why both developed and developing nations attach so much importance to the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language. English is taught as a foreign language in our schools. It is taught as a compulsory subject from class 1 to 12 , i.e. for a period of twelve years. This is quite a long period for teaching English compulsorily as a foreign language. From this lesson we will get idea about the importance of English as an international language. Objectives: After studying this lesson you will be able to list the reasons why students are learning English worldwide identify the reasons why students are learning English in Bangladesh analyse the differences between EFL and ESL and the implications these have for teaching explore the role of English in the school curriculum 16 Secondary Teachers Training Section A English as an international language We know as an international language English is used worldwide. In most of the countries people are learning English. Now think yourself for which purposes people are learning English throughout the world. Note down your points--a) -------------------------------------------------------b) -------------------------------------------------------c) -------------------------------------------------------d) -------------------------------------------------------e) -------------------------------------------------------- Section B Reasons for studying English in Bangladesh The present role of the English language in Bangladesh has a particular English came through British rulers, required for official purpose in Bangladesh two reasons : educational/social, continues to enjoy tremendous prestige historical background. The language policy of the colonial power in British India was based on Lord Macaulay’s Education Minutes of 1835.This policy sought to form “a class who may be interpreters between us (the British rulers) and the millions we (the British) govern; a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.” Although the primary objective of teaching English in India was to produce a class of Indians having the tastes and outlook of an Englishman, the use of the language was necessary for the administrative purposes of the colonial power in a land with nearly 580 distinct and dialects. During the period between 1947 and 1971 English played a crucial part in all sectors of the East Pakistan society. It enjoyed great prestige as an official language and as the main tool for communication. 17 Teaching English- 1 After the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation English suffered a serious setback during its first few years. The main reason for this was the strong national sentiment for our mother tongue Bangla. But later on it was realized that for our own interest we should restore English in its rightful place. Socially, English continues to enjoy tremendous prestige. The present role of English in Bangladesh is of two kinds- 1) educational and 2) social. Now look at the following reasons, why students are learning English in Bangladesh. Decide on the order of importance. Then put a number from 3 to 1 (3 = very important, 2 = important and 1 = not so important) in the column on the right. For example, if you think a) is very important then put 3 in the column on the right. Do this for each statement. Reasons for Learning English in Bangladesh Students learn English…. a) to go on to further study b) to get a better job (in Bangladesh or overseas) c) to develop an appreciation of literature d) to travel to other countries e) for pleasure f) to use the internet and e-mail g) to read newspapers, books and magazines h) to communicate with foreigners i) to pass school exams j) to watch films or TV programmes Importance Bring out the fact that many of these reasons involve practical use of English– not just study of its structures. School therefore needs to prepare 18 Secondary Teachers Training students to cope with the real-life use of English as well as academic knowledge of it as a subject. It is a skill-based as well as a content-based subject. English plays a vital role in Bangladesh at present. Although Bangla has Students need real life use, skill based subject, use English texts, journals, research, internet, e-mail, recruitment in GOs, NGOs, civil, military administration been introduced as the medium of instruction in our universities, teachers and students have to use English textbooks and journals for study and research in nearly all disciplines of knowledge. English is the only means to use internet and e-mail. It is a required subject for all competitive examinations for recruitment in government service and NGOs. It is used extensively in civil and military administration, in courts, in trade and commerce with foreign countries, in banks and tourism. The ability to use English language effectively is regarded as a necessary qualification for our communication with foreigners and foreign countries. Thus both educationally and socially, English has a very important role to play in our country. Section C ESL and EFL– implications for teaching Do you know what EFL and ESL mean (EFL= English as a Foreign Language, ESL= English as a Second Language)? Do you know the difference between L1 and L2 (L1 = First language- Mother tongue, L2 = ESL / EFL) In Bangladesh before 1971, the situation was ESL. Since Bangla became the official language of the country the status of English has changed and is now taught and learnt as a foreign language. Teaching English as a second and foreign language is not the same. In particular, when English is taught in a country as a second language, it is usually taught in much the same way as the first language. 19 Teaching English- 1 English is taught as a foreign language in our schools. It is taught as L1 = first language L2 = second/foreign language, before 1971 English was 2nd language, present - foreign learning, basic skills for use in and outside classroom, strong foundation for higher study compulsory subject from class 1 to class 12, for a period of 12 years. This is quite a long period for teaching English compulsorily as a foreign language. It can be accounted for only by the consideration of the needs of our younger generation for learning some basic skills for use in and outside the classroom and for laying a strong foundation of learning English at the higher level. Read the following case studies. Decide if each one is describing an EFL or ESL language-learning situation. Write your answer under each case study. Case studies – EFL and ESL language Learning Situation Case Study One In Singapore, Xiao Ying gets up and has a shower while listening to English pop songs on the radio. She has her breakfast and chats to her parents in a mixture of English and Chinese. Then she goes to school by bus. As she travels to school she reads the English advertisements along the road and thinks that the new Cadbury’s chocolate bar looks good. In school the teacher tells the class that today they are going to read a short story by a well-known contemporary English writer called Roald Dahl. Xiao Ying is glad as she loves reading and spends most of her spare time with her head in a book. But she gets a bit bored in the lessons as the teacher always asks the class to study the story in great detail. She just wants to read the story - not think about the grammar or use of vocabulary! After saying goodbye to all her friends, Xiao Ying gets on the bus and comes back home. She switches on the TV and laughs at some English cartoons for half an hour or so. After doing her homework, she eats and 20 Secondary Teachers Training then watches her favourite programme on TV – Bobby Peng Takes a Holiday. Finally she goes to bed. Is it an EFL or ESL situation? Case Study Two Meanwhile, in China, Chen Ming gets up and switches on the TV – her parents like to watch the Chinese news in the morning though she finds it rather boring. She eats her breakfast quickly, calls zai jian to her parents and then takes the train to school. Her first lesson of the day is English which she likes very much – especially when her teacher plays the cassette and asks the class to listen to the conversation. She likes listening practice with the tape recorder because school is the only opportunity she has to listen to English. She thinks how good it must be to live in Singapore like her cousin Xiao Ying and be surrounded by English all the time. Then she’d have no problem learning it! But her teacher is a good one and tells the class that they must use English as much as possible in the classroom. This will help them to develop their communicative skills. Chen Ming thinks this is very important as she can use English to write e-mails to her penfriend in Australia. And may be she’ll go to visit Xiao Ying one day too! Is it an EFL or ESL situation? Now answer the following questions. Questions a) What are the differences between these two situations? b) How is the teaching different in each situation? c) Is in Bangladesh an EFL or ESL language-learning situation? d) What implication does this Bangladesh? 21 have for teaching English in Teaching English- 1 Section D English in the curriculum Think about the role of English in the curriculum and answer the following questionsa) How many English lessons do the students generally read in a week? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- b) Which books are used for English in Junior Secondary? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- c) Are there any other materials besides the textbooks, which teachers can use? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Secondary Teachers Training ELT in Bangladesh Key Learning points English language occupies a unique place in education and research, in trade and commerce and in government and communication media. In Bangladesh English is used for higher studies. Moreover English is the only means to use internet and e-mail. It is a required subject for all competitive examinations for recruitment in government service and NGOs. It is used extensively in civil and military administration, in courts, in trade and commerce with foreign countries, in banks and tourism. The ability to use English language effectively is regarded as a necessary qualification for our communication with foreigners and foreign countries. The mother tongue of the child is her/his first language. It is the language that the child learns first after her/his birth. The situation in which circumstances compel one to learn another language in addition to one’s mother tongue is called second language learning. The term foreign language, however, refers to language which does not belong to the country where it is being taught and learnt. English is taught as a compulsory subject from class 1 to 12, i.e. for a period of twelve years. Though English is officially introduced from class 1 unofficially the subject is taught even from nursery classes in some institutions. Assessment of your learning: 1. Explain the role of English as an international language. 2. What are the differences between EFL & ESL situations? Explain with examples. 23 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section A: English as an international language a) higher education b) for getting a good job c) business purpose d) communicating with other countries Section B: Reasons for studying English in Bangladesh Reasons for learning English in Bangladesh to pass school exams (3) to go on to further study (3) to get a better job (in Bangladesh or overseas) (3) to read newspapers, books and magazines (2) to watch films or TV programmes (1) to communicate with foreigners (2) to develop an appreciation of literature (1) to use the internet and e-mail (2) to travel to other countries (2) for pleasure (2) Section C: ESL and EFL-implications for teaching Case Study One is an ESL situation Case Study Two is an EFL situation a) What are the differences between these two situations? In Case Study One, Xiao Ying is surrounded by English – on the radio, on the street, on the TV. She is comfortable talking to her parents in either English or Chinese. 24 Secondary Teachers Training In Case Study Two, Chen Ming is surrounded by Chinese – on the TV, talking to her parents – and only uses English in her English lessons in school and with her penfriend in Australia. b) How is the teaching different in each? In Case Study One, Xiao Ying approaches the story in the same way that a native speaker would. She doesn’t have any problem understanding the language as she uses English with her parents and friends. So she reads the story easily and then spends most of the lesson analysing the text. In Case study Two, Chen Ming practises skills such as listening because she does not have the opportunity to use English outside the classroom. The focus of her English lessons are on developing her communication skills. c) Is in Bangladesh an EFL or ESL language-learning situation? In Bangladesh, before 1971, the situation was ESL. Since Bangla became the official language of the country the status of English has been changed and is now taught as a foreign language. d) What implications does this have for teaching English in Bangladesh? Since most students do not have the opportunity to hear English around them, there needs to be a focus in the classroom on communication skills. Rather than being concerned with students’ accuracy, teachers need to help students to develop their fluency through motivating pair and group tasks. Studying literature and learning grammar rules are fine in an ESL situation since students are already proficient in using the language. But in Bangladesh students need lots of opportunities for practice for using the language in meaningful contexts. 25 Teaching English- 1 Section D: English in the curriculum a) 9-12 (NCTB recommends 10 sessions per week) b) English for Today 6-10; supplementary readers, grammar, simplified versions of interesting story books. c) Yes. Newspapers, magazines, books, radio programmes, flashcards, songs, pictures…..anything which helps students to develop their language skills. 26 Secondary Teachers Training Session 3 Introduction to Directed Study Introduction Bangladesh Open University is offering courses through distance mode. As a student of Bangladesh Open University you need to know what distance education is and what directed study is. This lesson will give you idea how you will have to study. In distance education students are not attending face to face class regularly. Only they are attending tutorial classes twice a month. They are getting classes through television and radio and their course book is working as a teacher for them. Objectives After studying this lesson you will be able to realize how you will have to study at home identify what directed study is and why it is useful explore ways of learning outside the training room 1 analyse a diary extract and consider how to keep a diary during the course Section A: BEd course in BOU Bangladesh Open University (BOU) is offering courses through distance mode. School of Education is the oldest school or faculty of BOU, which is offering courses related to teachers’ training. Most of the students of Bachelor of Education (BEd) programme are the teachers or would be teachers of secondary level. 1 Training room is used throughout these materials to distinguish you and your trainees from the classroom situation in schools. Similarly, the terms trainees or participants are preferred to students. 27 Teaching English- 1 BOU offers distance education for teachers or would be teachers, teachers go tutorial centres, TV & Radio offers classes, module is the most important As a student of distance education you have selected a tutorial centre near your home, which is providing tutorial services four times a month. Every Fridays you are going there to attend tutorial classes. Besides this through television and radio you are getting chance to attend classes. The most important thing is the course material or the module which is working like a teacher for you. So you need to know how to use these. Self study or directed study is the most important component for distance education. Activity A: Reasons for getting admission in BOU Now think it yourself, why you have got admitted in the B Ed programme of BOU. Write down the reasons of getting admission in BOU. 1. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28 Secondary Teachers Training Activity B Introduction– Directed Study Do you know about directed study? Think for a while and answer these questions. Directed study a) What can you do outside the training room to improve your learning? b) Why is it necessary to study outside the training room? c) When is the best time to study? Answer a) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------b) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------c) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section B: Ways to improve your awareness of teaching and language learning Now think of specific ways in which you can improve your teaching skills/knowledge and language. Look at the suggested activities. Look at the diagram and answer the following two questions: a) Are there any new terms which you find difficult to understand here? b) Which of the directed study tasks will help your methodology and which will improve your language? 29 Teaching English- 1 Worksheet 1 100 hours Individual (Black circles) or Collaborative (White circles) Worksheets Charts Pictures Aids Posters Peers Teachers School activities OBSERVATION PREPARING RESOURCES Reading texts Mini-compositions EfT/TG tasks Case studies Seminar preparation TEST DESIGN PREPARING DEBATES ASSIGNMNTS Directed Study on the BEd Course WRITTEN TASKS REFERENCWORK LANGUAGE WORK KEEPIN ADIARY Classwork Reflection Problems Questions Class Problems New Methods Data Collection Class journal Monthly reports Magazines Newspapers Films TV Dialogue Pronunciation work English Corner ACTION RESEARCH LESSONPLANNING Dictionaries Grammar Library 30 Secondary Teachers Training Section C Keeping a diary/learning log What do you understand by keeping a diary? Keeping diary teaching diary include events related to teaching Have you ever kept a diary? What kind of things have you written in the diary? (Date/events/descriptions, feelings etc) A teaching diary (or learning log) is similar but the events you write about are connected to your teaching. Look at two extracts from two diaries of two teachers and read it and do the activity. Keeping a diary or learning log Read the following extracts from two diaries. Which diary is a more useful record of the day’s events? Why? Date: 31/12/2004 From the diary of Mahmood Azad In the morning, we had a session on “Teaching and Learning Reading” conducted by our Teacher Educator Ms Shahana. The session started with a short warm-up. It was a simple, short activity that involved the active participation of all of us. I think, such small, snappy activities can make the session lively from the very beginning. I asked myself, "Can't I start my classes with such warm-ups?” I am thinking of trying it in my next class. I believe my students will really like it. The session focused on the various steps of a “Reading Lesson”. I can understand now, how to arrange a lesson for teaching reading. In particular, the idea of three steps, i.e. pre, while and post reading is clear to me. Though I’m not very absolutely sure how I’m going to follow such steps in my classroom with a large number of students and shortage of 31 Teaching English- 1 time, I feel the steps to be logical. I am waiting to take my next class on reading, following the three steps. The trainer showed good manners and the way she corrected our errors was very nice. When we gave any wrong/incorrect information, she smiled politely thanking us first for the contribution and then gently gave the correct information. Again, I liked the way she encouraged us to take part in discussions and tried to get the trainees come up with possible answers. This could be a good principle of teaching to follow....... 31/12/04 From the diary of Munira Shahazadi It was a rainy day and we had a session on “Teaching and Learning Speaking” by our tutor, Mr Alam. He is polite and intelligent. He taught us so many things of teaching speaking! The session was very useful and important. The tutor dealt with the session very well. I can’t ever forget the skills the tutor had shown. It was really a memorable experience to attend the session. After the morning session we went for lunch. The food was really delicious. Though my doctor told me not to have rich food, I enjoyed it. After the lunch, I felt a bit drowsy. We attended another session on “Listening Skills”. Again it was a lovely one. Our tutor tried his best. He, at first, gave us a warmer. Then he put us in pairs and asked us to complete a handout. He, then, put us in groups and set a discussion activity. We discussed and then he took feedback. Finally we were told to make a poster about the key principles of a listening lesson.............. 32 Secondary Teachers Training Introduction to Directed Study Key Learning Points A trainee can never finish all the tasks within the training room. In a oneyear long BEd programme, a trainee has to attend many programmes like formal sessions with the trainer, studying outside the classroom, teaching practice, examinations (both internal and external), co-curricular activities, etc. All these are part of BEd curriculum. Among these, studying outside the classroom is known as directed study. It can be done individually or in groups, in the library or in the hostel or house, wherever the trainee intends. As a student of distance mode you will have to depend mostly on self learning. You are getting tutorial services on every Friday, so besides your tutorial classes most of the time you will have to do self study reading the module and this is called directed study. Directed study may happen also in the form of reading books, journals and periodicals, preparing assignments through hand-writing or printing in the computer, discussing with friends or searching resources in the internet; or just making hand notes for the examinations. For example, preparing lesson plans is an important component in the Teaching Studies subjects. The trainer makes the procedure or the ways of preparing a lesson plan familiar to the trainees or s/he may prepare a sample lesson plan for the trainees. Then the trainer gives a task of preparing another lesson plan by the trainees which should definitely be done outside the classroom- at home or in the library. To do this the trainees may discuss it with the fellow trainees or consult some references and finally prepare the lesson plan. This is directed study. To do the directed study task properly, the trainer should give some clear instructions. 33 Teaching English- 1 The term Directed Study is not familiar to Bangladeshi students or trainees. We are familiar to homework which is different from directed study. For directed study, the trainees should maintain a diary or learning log. There is much benefit of keeping a diary. The trainer gives some tasks in every class to be done by the trainees as directed study. The trainees should write it down in their diaries. The trainer uses varieties of activities and techniques to make the class effective. To implement these techniques in their own classroom, the trainees should write them in their diaries. Remember Diaries are helpful because they allow you to reflect on what they are learning. You can write about what you learn on the BEd course, your feelings and opinions about the techniques you experience. You can write your diaries in any language you programme. You can write it in your free time – during the day or in the evenings. The diaries will be collected from time to time for tutors to read. 34 Secondary Teachers Training Assessment of you learning: Assessment of you learning: 1. What do you understand by Directed Study? Why is it necessary? 2. How can you improve the awareness of improving the teaching of our teachers? 3. As a student of distance education how can directed study help you? 35 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section A: Reasons for getting admission in BOU Activity A: a) I will not have to take leave from my school for doing BEd in BOU. b) As a working person I am feeling good and it is helpful for me to attend the classes on Fridays. c) I can attend classes staying at home through TV and radio. d) Books are very much helpful for our learning. Activity B: Introduction – Directed Study 1. What can you do outside the training room to improve your learning? You can read journal and magazine articles, search the internet or discuss teaching issues with colleagues, as well as improving your English. 2. Why is it necessary to study outside the training room? In order to get the most from your BEd, you need to use your time outside the training room for further study. The time spent in class is only one part of the course – there are other activities you can do in the library or the TTC resource centre. This will help you become more successful in your learning inside the training room. 3. When is the best time to study? In your free time! This can be either during the day, in the evening or at the weekend. It can be done alone or with a friend/colleague. 36 Secondary Teachers Training Section B: Ways to improve your awareness of teaching and language learning a) Possibly the terms peers, observation, reflection, action research, etc. Explain as necessary. b) The circles on language work and reference work are the two skills explicitly connected with language improvement. However, doing all of these activities will indirectly improve the language. Section C: Keeping a diary/learning log The first extract by Mahmood Azad is better as he gives more information on the activities he learnt about. He also explains his feelings about them. The second extract by Munira Shahazadi is OK but it is more of a description of the day with less detail about her feelings and opinions. 37 Teaching English- 1 Session 4 ELT Methodology and Approaches Introduction Though communicative approach has been introduced in the school curriculum of Bangladesh for long time and teachers are encouraged to speak English in the class but most of them use little or no English for presenting the texts. They just follow the old method of translating the text into Bangla. Many of them do not make the students do the language exercise in the classrooms. The exercises are often assigned to the students in the classrooms. Hardly any attention is given to oral work. Objectives By the end of the session you will be able to- establish a common picture of language classrooms in Bangladesh explore the personally useful/less aspects of activities for learning English compare differences in learning styles and the implications these have for teaching students 38 Secondary Teachers Training Section A: Overview of how language is taught in Bangladesh Read the following questions yourself and create an image in your mind. You are sitting in your classroom in your school. The English lesson has started. What activities are you doing?.......What are your classmates doing?............What is your teacher doing?.........Is the teacher looking happy or sad? Why? Teachers in Bangladesh use Bangla translation, students need oral work, teachers need good preparation. some urban trained teachers use modern method, language activities, prepare students for exam. In Bangladesh most of the teachers use mother tongue for explaining English and this is easier and they feel comfort while translating everything into Bangla. Besides, involving students in oral work in English requires a great deal of preparation on the part of the teacher. Again, asking the students to do the exercises at home is a great relief to the overburdened teacher though it is often a big problem for the students who are weak and whose parents cannot afford to engage private tutors for them. In a word, the modern language teaching methods on which the English text books are based are not followed except only by a very few trained teachers in some urban schools. And all the language teaching activities seem to be geared to preparing answers to examination questions. As a result, students are not sufficiently encouraged to learn English as a tool for communication. Rather they are motivated to memorize answers to examination questions. 39 Teaching English- 1 Section B: Own language learning experiences Think yourself how you have learnt English in your school life. Now do the following activity. Your language learning experience Read the following chart. Tick the boxes for the language learning activities listed across I have experien ce of I have no experien ce of I did this in class I did this out of class I enjoyed 40 Translating from L1* to L2** or vice versa Learning vocabulary lists Copying sentences in writing Oral repetition Writing dictations Listening to English on the radio Watching TV or videos in English Memorizing rules Reading aloud Reading silently Writing grammar exercises Writing creatively in English Discussing/speaking in English the top of the chart, based on your own experiences. I disliked I did this alone I did this with others I found this useful I didn’t find this useful I did this frequent ly * L1 refers to your first language **L2 refers to your foreign or second language What does this tell you about your language learning experiences? Complete the statements below to summarise your data: 41 Translating from L1* to L2** or vice versa Learning vocabulary lists Copying sentences in writing Oral repetition Writing dictations Listening to English on the radio Watching TV or videos in English Memorizing rules Reading aloud Reading silently Writing grammar exercises Writing creatively in English Discussing/speaking in English Secondary Teachers Training Teaching English- 1 a) The most enjoyable language learning experience I’ve had is ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..................... ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. …………….............................................................................................................. b) The most useful language learning experience I’ve had is ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ..............................................................................................................…………… c) The least enjoyable language learning experience I’ve had is ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………….............................................................................................................. d) The least useful language learning experience I’ve had is ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... …………….............................................................................................................. Section C: Personal learning styles A learning style has been described as an individual preference to learn in a particular way (Willing 1989 and Wenden & Rubin 1987). In other words, your learning style is the way that you learn best. Learning styles can vary according to subject, age and personality. Read the following statements. Put a number next to each statement in the column on the right according to your opinion. 1 = not true for me 2 = sometimes true for me 3 = definitely true for me 42 Secondary Teachers Training Statement Number a) I like someone, e.g. a teacher, to explain things like pronunciation and grammar to me, to correct my mistakes. b) I enjoy doing grammar exercises and learning rules because this helps me to avoid making mistakes. c) I like to learn English by listening to people speaking English, e.g. on the TV or radio. d) I’m not afraid to make mistakes when I speak. e) I like to learn English words by hearing and using them. f) I like to learn by studying English books, newspapers, etc whether in class or out of class. g) I like to write new words and answers to exercises in my book. h) I like to improve my English by writing in English as much as possible. i) I like to learn English by talking to people in English. j) I like to study new words by seeing them. k) I like to learn by reading rather than speaking. l) I like to find my own mistakes. m) I like the teacher to give us problems to work on. n) I like to try out new words in speaking and writing so that I can learn to use them better. Notice which statements you have given 3 to. These show the ways you prefer to learn. 43 Teaching English- 1 We have come to the conclusion thato Students also have preferred ways of learning and there are likely to be as many approaches and needs as there are students. o Teachers need to be aware of this diversity in their classes. o Some students like to read, some like to listen, others like to be involved in practical tasks. o Teachers need to plan lessons that take these different learning styles into account. 44 Secondary Teachers Training Assignment Directed Study– 1 Task: Report writing Teaching area: ELT Methodology and Approaches Aim: To identify the problems of traditional methods in learning English. Organization and approach This task is to be done individually. Ppts will interview some of their colleagues to know their own way of learning English in schools following some specific questions. Procedure 1. 2. 3. 4. Design a question sheet, which helps you to know your respondents' opinions. (Questions like these: How many skills did you practise in schools? Did you enjoy your English class? Why or why not? etc) Interview at least 5 colleagues, using the question sheet. Collect data and analyse the results. Write a report on “Problems of traditional methods in teaching English" based on your analysis and opinions within 300 words. 45 Teaching English- 1 ELT Methodology and Approaches Key Learning Points English is taught and learnt as a foreign language in our country. Though CLT has been introduced in the early 90s in our country, most of the teachers usually follow the Grammar Translation method even today. This is because they are not trained in CLT and have misconceptions about CLT. Moreover, as they were taught English through GT method, they think this is the appropriate method for teaching language, usually English. Untrained teachers especially tend to teach according to the way they learnt. Most of our teachers reflect their own style of learning while teaching. So our students usually do some grammatical exercises, read aloud, memorize rules and texts and translate from L1 to L2 or from L2 to L1 in their English classes. Though these activities help them to develop their knowledge of grammar, they fail to apply this while they speak and write. This is because they do not get the chance to experience speaking activity, creative writing, listening practice, silent reading activity in the classroom. They have little chance therefore to practise language in the classroom. The language class is somehow boring for them as they do not get any interest in their classroom activities. As a result, they memorise the text/grammar to pass the exam rather than learn the language. This is the common feature of teaching-learning English in our country at secondary level. Our teachers usually do not give importance to students' likes, dislikes, choices and learning styles. They teach according to their own way. The students’ interest here is merely neglected. But students have preferred ways of learning and there are likely to be as many approaches and needs as there are students. Teachers need to be aware of this diversity in their classes. Some students like to read, some like to listen; others like to be involved in practical tasks. Teachers need to plan lessons that take these different learning styles into account. Assessment of your learning: 1. How did you learn English in schools? Session 5 2. Why should a teacher know the learning styles of students? 46 Secondary Teachers Training Session 5 An Introduction to Communicative Language Teaching Introduction The Communicative Approach aims at teaching situational English. By situational English we mean that kind of English which can be used in real life communication. This approach helps the teacher to teach such English as would be appropriate in real life situations. It puts greater emphasis on developing in the students’ communicative competence rather than just linguistic competence. Objectives: By the end of the session you will be able to outline the historical stages of language teaching identify the main characteristics of CLT list the problems of English teachers in Bangladesh Section A: Brief Overview of The History of ELT Approaches Activity A 1: A History of ELT Approaches Read the following texts and answer the questions given bellow of each text. Text A: Grammar- Translation Method Grammar translation is the oldest method of foreign language teaching, having existed for more than 2000 years. Its main characteristics are: Learning grammatical rules and patterns Using examples and exercises which practise these Translation between L1 and L2 Memorisation of texts Concentration on a classic, written form of the language 47 Teaching English- 1 1) How old is this method? 2) How important is grammar in this method? Text B: The Direct Method This method became popular about 100 years ago. It believes that speaking is more important than studying rules and literature. Language is taught ‘directly’ (without translation) and ‘naturally’ (in the way that students learn their mother tongue). The main characteristics are: No translation, only use of the foreign (target) language No explicit grammar rules Using visual aids Using drama, mime and gestures to convey meaning 1) How is this method ‘natural’? 2) What is the main change from the Grammar-Translation method? Text C: The Structural Approach This approach started about 80 years ago. Some teachers of the ‘Direct Method’ in Britain felt that there was a need to organise the language into groups rather than teach in a disorganised way. They organised the language into grammatical, lexical (vocabulary) and phonological (pronunciation) groups. The main characteristics are: Organising the language into categories Careful grading and presenting of language Written language is as important as spoken language Relevant exercises using ‘everyday’ language 1) Why did the Structural approach organise language into groups? 2) Which is more important – speaking or writing? Text D: The Audio Lingual Method This method started in the USA. It thought that all human behaviour (including language learning) was controlled by scientific rules. It believed that language is based on habits and language teaching should 48 Secondary Teachers Training aim to form habits in the learners. This method stresses speaking and listening skills through lots of repetition of language patterns (drills). The main characteristics are: Organising language into structures Repeating sentences through drills No grammar rules No translation Helping students to avoid making mistakes 1) Why are scientific rules important in this method? 2) What speaking and listening activities do learners do in this method? Text E: The Communicative Approach In the 1960s and 1970s a number of new approaches developed. Although they were different in many ways, they all stressed the importance of communication. They were therefore grouped under the heading of the ‘Communicative Approach’. The main characteristics are: The importance of language as a tool for communication, rather than a subject to be studied Using ‘real life’ language in situations, rather than only learning grammatical rules Using the language needs of the learner as the basis for the syllabus A balance between fluency and accuracy Concern for the appropriate use of language according to the situation (appropriacy) A new focus on the development of all four skills 1) What is the most important aspect of this approach? 2) What is the key new focus of this approach? Activity A 2 Think yourself and answer the following questions: Which method(s) is (are) most common in Bangladesh? Which method(s) did your teacher use to teach you? Which method(s) is (are) used in English for Today? 49 Teaching English- 1 Section B: The main characteristics of CLT For exploring the characteristics of the Communicative Approach, conduct a lesson following the guidelines given below. Demonstration lesson 1. Enter the class, greet the students and proceed with Unit 1, Lesson 1 (Activities A & B). Teach the lesson as in the TG, but make sure you include the following: Greet the students and ask them how they are/how their weekend was, etc. Explain the objectives on the board at the start. Use the picture fully. Make sure you put SS into pairs whenever possible to both complete exercises and to check answers to exercises. While SS are in pairs, monitor and try to pick up any mistakes. Don’t give the answers yourself. Try to elicit them wherever possible. Provide some feedback on mistakes at the end of the activity – but don’t mention the names of the SS who made them. This is only a short demonstration – but should provide enough clues for you to do the next activity, combined with what you already know about CLT… 50 Secondary Teachers Training Remember the demonstration lesson and try to identify the main principles of a typical CLT lesson, of which this was just an example. Write some of the key ideas of CLT, using the box in the Worksheet as a prompt. Worksheet Communicative Language Teaching Think about: Purpose of learning English Atmosphere Main methods Typical activities Reasons for these Role of skills (R, W, S, L) Place of grammar Role of practice Role of the book Role of errors Teacher’s role Students’ role Teachers face difficulty in classroom problems and solutions low salary-no solution students interestsolutions studentsteachers cooperation Section C: teachers The challenges faced by Bangladeshi Think of all the difficulties that Bangladeshi teachers face in their classrooms and make a list. Now decide which of the problems have solutions and which do not, e.g. low salary (no solution), Students are not interested in English (solution). B Ed course is there to help you find solutions to many of your problems. However, there is little point wasting time and energy on complaining 51 Teaching English- 1 about problems that cannot be solved. If teachers are willing to cooperate with each other, most problems can be solved. Assignment Directed Study– 2 Task: Report writing Teaching area: Communicative Language Teaching Aim: To find out the positive aspects of CLT. Organization and approach You will work in groups in your tutorial session to analyse CLT. First you will find out the positive aspects individually. After that you will discuss your points in groups and make a report explaining its importance. Procedure 1. You will write down some of the positive aspects of CLT and its challenges. 2. Make a list and find out how to overcome the challenges. Make a report. 52 Secondary Teachers Training An Introduction to Communicative Language Teaching Key Learning points A. Grammar–Translation Method The Grammar–Translation method for teaching a second or foreign language began to be used in the 19th century. The main focus of this method is on the translation and grammar study. It is a traditional way of teaching English and is still used in Bangladesh by most English teachers. The Grammar-Translation method is also often called the ‘traditional method’. Main characteristics The study of grammatical rules and patterns The use of examples and exercises which practise these Translation between first language and second language Memorization of texts Concentration on a classic, written form of the language Advantages and disadvantages of this Method Advantages of this Method. There is ample opportunity for practice of grammar and translation Helps in learning the mother tongue better Translation evidently helps in quick understanding and better comprehension Helps to explain abstract terms more easily (for example, words like honesty, discipline, etc.) More time and effort saving for the teacher The teacher can use this method with the least preparation Helps understand similarities between languages 53 Teaching English- 1 Disadvantages of this method Word-to-word translation impedes natural learning flow Creates a tremendous strain on students’ memory, as they have to memorize a lot of items Learning of grammar rules hinders the use of the target language Causes mother tongue interference. By translating every word in mother tongue the learners' ability to think in English is disrupted Practice in speaking and listening is neglected One does not learn the language, but learns about the language Emphasis on rules makes language learning dull and uninteresting B. The Direct Method This method became popular about 100 years ago. It has been said that the Direct Method was developed as a reaction to the Grammar Translation Method. In this method, the learners are interested in a flow of examples of the L2, at the same time getting them engaged in conversations or questions/answers aiming at establishing “a direct bond between experiences and expressions.” It emphasizes direct contact with the target language in meaningful sentences. The idea was to teach the language ‘directly’ and ‘naturally’ with plenty of oral exercises and active demonstration of the words being used through visual aids, dramatization, etc. grammar is taught implicitly, not explicitly. Main characteristics No use of any language except the target language No use of explicit grammar Use of visual aids Use of dramatisation (i.e. acting, mime) Use of special gestures, to convey meaning 54 Secondary Teachers Training C. The Structural Approach This approach started about 80 years ago. The purpose of this approach is to ensure a meaningful context for language practice. In other words, it aims at contextualization and tries to avoid meaningless and mechanical practice. Importance is given to both written and spoken language. In fact, all the four language skills are given due importance in graded steps. Main characteristics Organising the language into categories Careful grading and presenting of language Written language is as important as spoken language Relevant exercises using everyday language D. The Audio-Lingual Method In the 1960s this method started in the USA. It was based on the idea that all human behaviour (including language learning) was controlled by scientific rules. It believed that language is based on habits and language teaching should aim at forming habits in the learners. This approach stresses speaking and listening skills through lots of repetition of language patterns (drills) Main characteristics Organising language into structures Repeating sentences through drills No grammar rules No translation Helping students to avoid making mistakes 55 Teaching English- 1 E. The Communicative Approach In the 1960s and 1970s a number of new approaches developed. Although they were different in many ways, they all stressed the importance of communication. They were, therefore, grouped under the heading of ‘Communicative Approach’. The emphasis is on language in use rather than language as structures; hence it emphasises on the spoken form of English. Practice of pronunciation, stress and intonation is a vital component. Language is based on real-life situations, i.e. situational or communicative English is practised. Hence, the objective is students' communicative competence rather than linguistic competence. Main characteristics The importance of language as a tool for communication, rather than a subject to be studied Using ‘real- life’ language in situations, rather than only learning grammatical rules Using the language needs of the learner as the basis for the syllabus A balance between fluency and accuracy Concern for the appropriate use of language according to the situation A new focus on the development of all four skills Advantages Emphasis on spoken form of English Helps in attaining fluency of the language and use it appropriately There is scope for variety and innovations in the classroom, thereby making the lesson interesting and motivating for the learners 56 Secondary Teachers Training Disadvantages Most of the activities are oral, whereas our public examination focuses on reading and writing only. Lack of well-trained, competent and skilled teachers to use the approach effectively. Assessment of Your Learning 1. Which of these methods is appropriate for teaching English in Bangladesh and Why? 2. Which method is commonly used in our country and why? 57 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Activity A 1: A History of ELT Approaches Grammar Translation Method 1) Over 2000 years old 2) Grammar is the only thing of importance The Direct Method 1) It copies the way students learn their mother tongue 2) It gives no grammar rules The Structural Approach 1) It is important to teach the language in an organised way 2) Speaking and writing are of equal importance The Audio-Lingual Method 1) Scientific rules control all human behaviour – including language 2) Learners do lots of repetition through oral ‘drills’ The Communicative Approach 1) Communication or real meaning is seen to be the key element 2) There is now a focus on skills as well as knowledge of language systems Activity A 2: A History of ELT Approaches Which method(s) is(are) most common in Bangladesh? Teachers use the Grammar Translation method on the whole. Which method(s) did your teacher use to teach you? Answers will depend on individual Ppt but Grammar Translation is the most likely. Which method(s) is(are) used in English for Today? English for Today uses the Communicative Approach with elements of the Audio-Lingual method as well. 58 Secondary Teachers Training Section B: The characteristics of CLT Meaningful language (not mechanical practice) Real-life language used Skills work on all four skills Grammar in context Pair and group work Learning by doing Exposure to language Teacher as facilitator and monitor Student has to do most of the work Errors corrected gently and after the main activity Book based on real life topics Vocabulary introduced in context Lots of practice activities: dialogues, role plays, etc Learning-centred, not teaching-centred Section C: teachers The challenges Solution faced by Bangladeshi No solution Textbooks have no grammar Salary is low Students don’t enjoy English Classroom is too small Class size is too large Not enough books Syllabus is too long Lessons are too short Not enough EfT Teacher’s Guides Exams do not reflect the content of EfT No time for preparation of supplementary activities 59 Teaching English- 1 Session 6 Teaching Listening 1 Introduction Since a language is primarily spoken it has to be learnt through the ear. Language has its own sounds, vocal organs of human beings similar but do not use same sounds, learners need to listen sound accurately Language consists of vocal sounds. Each language has its own particular ways of using vocal sounds. Although the vocal organs of all human beings are more or less similar, all languages do not use the same sounds. We are used to the sounds of our own mother tongue so it is difficult for us to listen to sounds which are unusual and different from those of our own language. The learner must be taught to listen to sounds accurately and to recognize the difference between sounds. Objectives After reading this lesson you will be able to consider the ways in which you listen in real life compare the ways in which we listen to our L1 and L2 analyse the stages of a listening lesson from EfT Section A: Introduction to listening Think and answer the following question. Make a list of all kinds of listening you do in real life in your L1 and L2. 1. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Remember, sometimes we listen to get specific information and sometimes we try to find out the gist after listening something. We listen in different ways and for different purposes. 60 Secondary Teachers Training Section B: Characteristics of L1 and L2 listening Read the following statements. Write an example or situation for that statement in the column on the right. Read the following statements about L1 listening. Think what each statement means. Give an example or situation that shows the idea behind each statement. Statement We Example or situation spend most of our time a) Most L1 listening takes place listening face to face to friends, colleagues, family in conversation. Apart from on the phone, this is face to face. b) In most cases we have to We usually respond, simply by respond to what we listen to continuing the conversation, or by following instructions. c) We listen for pleasure, for information etc. That is, we always have a purpose for Listening d) Listening is when we have more effective some idea of what we will listen to – some knowledge of the topic or context e) We don’t expect to remember everything we listen to f) We use a number of clues simultaneously to help us as 61 Teaching English- 1 Statement Example or situation we listen. e.g. gestures, facial expressions, the situation g) Sometimes we have to listen to long stretches of speech h) Most of what we listen to in our L1 is informal, conversational language i) We learn to manage different speeds of speech, unknown vocabulary and other problems when we listen j) We are relaxed and confident about listening in our L1 k) When we listen, we hear sounds, process them as words and finally understand them as meaningful sentences Thinking question Now think about each statement again. This time comment on each one as a statement about L2 listening, i.e. listening to English. Is this similar or different to the process of L1 listening? We know that successful listening in our first language depends on purpose, prediction, response, feeling relaxed, using clues, then we need to make sure we create the same conditions for our learners when they listen in a foreign language. This involves creating a) an atmosphere in 62 Secondary Teachers Training which students feel confident and b) tasks which help the process. We will be looking at these in this and subsequent sessions. Section C : Stages of listening Activity 1 Do you know how listening skills are taught in EfT. Provide the answers below: 1. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity 2 Look at EfT classes 9-10, Unit 4, Lesson 1, Sections A-D, and fill in the right column on Worksheet 2, outlining the purpose of each stage of the listening. 63 Teaching English- 1 Activities in Teaching Listening Look at EfT classes 9-10, Unit 4, Lesson 1, Sections A-D. Write the purpose of each stage of the listening in the column on the right. Stage Purpose A Students look at the picture and discuss 3 questions B Students are introduced to the topic of the listening text. Key vocabulary is taught. They discuss 3 questions related to the topic C Students listen to the text and complete 11 statements as they listen D Students discuss the topic using words and phrases from the text What do you think the following terms refer to? Pre-listening task While-listening task Post-listening task Activity 3 Make notes of your answers in the boxes below: Pre-listening task While-listening task Post-listening task 64 Secondary Teachers Training Teaching Listening– 1 Key Learning Points Learning a language means learning four basic language skills i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing. Among these, listening and reading are receptive skills and speaking and writing are productive skills. Listening is not simply hearing. It is related to comprehension. Listening is the first step of learning a language. Without listening, no one can learn a language. For this reason, listening is treated as a very important skill of learning a language. A good listener can be a good speaker too. If someone asks you a question, you must listen to him, otherwise you cannot respond to his query. Students of secondary schools can find a lot of scope for listening in and outside the classroom. In the classroom, students listen to the teacher giving instructions, reading from the textbook, classmates answering teachers’ questions and talking to themselves. Outside the classroom in the real-life situations, students get the following chances to listen: participating in conversation listening to lectures, speeches, instructions, etc. listening to radio, TV, e.g. news, weather forecast, music, drama, etc. public announcement (at the airport, railway stations, etc.) telephone talk talk shows interviews stories, arguments, theatre show, etc. 65 Teaching English- 1 Types of listening: Focused listening or listening for specific information: When we listen something focusing our attention on a certain point for exact information, it is called listening for specific information. Casual listening or listening for gist : Listening something without paying full attention or just listening something ordinarily is known as casual listening or listening for gist. Characteristics/Features of listening L1 and L2 Most L1 listening takes place face to face. In most cases we have to respond to what we listen to. We listen for pleasure, for information etc. i.e. we always have a purpose for listening. Listening is more effective when we have some idea what we will listen to- some knowledge of the topic or content. We do not expect to remember everything we listen to. We use a number of clues simultaneously to help us as we listen, e.g. gestures, facial expressions, the situations etc. Sometimes we have to listen to long stretches of speech. Most of what we listen to in our L1 is informal, conversational language. We learn to manage different speeds of speech, unknown vocabulary and other problems when we listen. We are relaxed and confident about listening in our L1. When we listen, we hear sounds, process them as words and finally understand them as meaningful sentences. 66 Secondary Teachers Training Organizing listening task/Stages in a listening activity To organize a listening activity in the classroom, the teacher should follow three stages. These are: Pre-listening stage: Before starting the actual listening activity, the teacher should set the scene giving some instructions like what the students are going to listen and what they will do while listening. To draw the students’ attention to the listening task, the teacher may ask some motivating/ guiding questions at this stage. While-listening stage: This is the actual listening stage. At this stage the students listen to the text, may be in the cassette or the teacher reading it aloud himself, and do the task given before, i.e. students try to find out answers to the comprehension questions. The teacher should remember that only listening is not enough but the teacher should give them some tasks through which the teacher can measure the students how good their listening is. If required the teacher should repeat the process. Post-listening stage: This stage is for assessment or feedback. The teacher can assess the achievement of the students in many ways. Assessment of your learning: 1. What is listening? Why is it important? 2. Discuss the characteristics/features of listening L1 and L2. 3. How can you organize a listening task in the classroom? Explain. 67 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section A : Introduction to Listening Specific information Listening to lectures Listening to the TV/radio, weather news Listening to college announcements Listening to prices while shopping Listening to friends/family in conversation Listening to the TV/radio news Listening to conversation Watching films or plays Listening to songs Section B: Characteristics of L1 and L2 Listening a) Most L1 listening takes place face to face (all conversations apart from the telephone) b) In most cases we have to respond to what we listen to (questions, discussion, instructions) c) We listen for pleasure, for information etc. That is, we always have a purpose for listening (listening to a story, listening to the news) d) Listening is more effective when we have some idea of what we will listen to – some knowledge of the topic or context (news reports, personal stories) e) We don’t expect to remember everything we listen to (informal conversations with family/friends) f) We use a number of clues simultaneously 68 Secondary Teachers Training to help us as we listen. e.g. gestures, facial expressions, the situation (face to face conversations with family/friends) g) Sometimes we have to listen to long stretches of speech (lectures in college) h) Most of what we listen to in our L1 is informal, conversational language i) (chatting, gossiping) We learn to manage different speeds of speech, unknown vocabulary and other problems when we listen j) (listening to the TV or radio, lectures) We are relaxed and confident about listening in our L1 (informal situations with family and friends) k) When we listen, we hear sounds, process them as words and finally understand them as meaningful sentences (all situations!) Section C: Stages of Listening Activity 1 There are listening passages that are read by the teacher. There are pictures that students look at and discuss before they listen. There are tasks that students have to complete (comprehension questions/true or false statements). There are grammar/vocabulary exercises after the listening passage that relate to the topic. 69 Teaching English- 1 Section C : Stages of Listening Activity 2 Activity A Students look at the picture and discuss 3 questions Purpose Preparing students for the general topic Activating their knowledge of the topic B Students are introduced to the topic of the listening text. Key vocabulary They discuss 3 questions related Introducing the topic of the listening text Activating key vocabulary is taught Personalising the topic to the topic C Students listen to the text and Providing a reason for listening complete the statements as they listen Encouraging students to listen for specific information D Students discuss the topic using Helping students to understand the text words and phrases from the text Providing students with oral practice 70 Secondary Teachers Training Section C: Stages of Listening Activity 3 Answers Pre-listening task - Introduce the topic/set the scene Present key items of vocabulary Explain the task clearly While-listening task - Provide a purpose for listening Post-listening task - Provide further practice in skills, grammar or vocabulary 71 Teaching English- 1 Session 7 Lesson Planning 1 Introduction A lesson plan is an outline of a particular lesson which the teacher prepares before presenting the lesson. A lesson plan contains what will be taught, how it will be taught and with what it will be taught and for what purpose it will be taught. From this session you will get idea about lesson planning and also about its importance. Objectives To consider reasons why teachers use lesson plans To examine typical reactions to making and using lesson plans To analyse a typical lesson plan from EfT Section A Why plan a lesson? Think about the importance of lesson planning and write down why it is necessary for teachers? 1. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 72 Secondary Teachers Training Section B Attitudes to planning There are many views on lesson planning. Read some of these views and give your opinion bellow. Teachers’ Thoughts on Lesson Planning Read the following quotations from teachers. Discuss them in your groups. Do you agree or disagree with what the teachers are saying? Why? 1) I don’t need a lesson plan! I just use the textbook and follow it page by page. 2) I don’t like lesson plans. If you have a lesson plan you don’t have any freedom to do what you like. 3) I always write a detailed lesson plan. It takes me a lot of time and is usually 3 pages long. But I give it to the Head teacher and don’t use it in the lesson. 4) Lesson plans are very important. They are like a guide and help me to achieve 5) Lesson plans are essential for new teachers. How do you know where you’re going without a plan? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 73 Teaching English- 1 Section C Components of a lesson plan Activity 1 Think about the organisation of a lesson plan. Now write what are the components of a typical lesson plan? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 74 Secondary Teachers Training Activity 2 Look at the lesson plan from EfT class 6 and answer the following questions: Example lesson plan Look at this lesson plan from EfT class 6. Answer the questions. EfT class 6, Unit 5, lesson 9 Mr Alam’s daily routine Objectives: To practise listening skills To practise simple present tense To introduce new vocabulary Possible problems: Students are likely to have difficulty with the times. Students will need to hear the passage several times Visual aids: Picture of Mr Alam Warm-up (1 minute) 1) Ask students: Who is Mr Alam? What does he do? Where does he live? Check Lesson 8 for answers. Section A: Listen and Match (9 minutes) 2) Ask students to look at the chart on page 68. 3) Ask students to listen to a passage about Mr Alam's daily routine. They must fill in the missing information on the chart in their books. 4) Explain the new word properly to the class (using example and giving pronunciation). 5) Read the passage aloud. 75 Teaching English- 1 6) Check that students understand the task by reading the first 3 sentences. 7) Check that they have the correct answers: 6.00- Walks by the river 6.30- Has breakfast Section B: Check answers (5 minutes) 8) Read the passage again. Students listen 9) After reading the passage, ask students to check their answers with their partner. Section C: Ask and Answer (20 minutes) 10) Demonstrate the exercise with a bright student. Use the example to help you. 11) Ask students to work in pairs, asking and answering the questions. 12) Check the answers: e.g. At 7 o’clock he goes to his shop. He opens his shop at half past 7. etc. Section D (5 minutes) 13) Homework: Ask students to write a daily routine for someone in their family. 1. How are these stages shown in the lesson plan? 2. What are the advantages of this plan? 3. What are the disadvantages? 76 Secondary Teachers Training Assignment Directed Study 3 Task: How TG will help a teacher to write a lesson plan Teaching area: Lesson planning Aim: To explore TG's role in writing a lesson plan. Organization and approach This task is to be done individually. You will read an EfT lesson, example lesson plan and that particular EfT lesson in TG. You will select the main components of TG and identify its role in making the lesson plan. Procedure 1. Read example lesson plan and write down the key components. Select what kind of help you need to make a lesson plan. 2. Now read the same lesson in TG and find out the key items which are described there. 3. Explain how these components have been explained in TG. 4. Now write down how much these guidelines help you to fulfill your needs. 5. Write a report explaining TGs role in making lesson plan within 200 words. Requirements After completion of the task individually you will submit it to your tutor. 77 Teaching English- 1 Lesson Planning 1 Key Learning Points A lesson plan is an outline of a particular lesson which the teacher prepares before presenting the lesson. A lesson plan contains what will be taught, how it will be taught and with what it will be taught and with what purpose it will be taught. An organized lesson plan helps a teacher a lot. It tells the teacher what to do in the classroom. It gives a structure to the lesson with logical stages and timings. Lesson planning helps in progression of the lesson in an organized and planned way. Having a lesson plan the teacher is more confident and relaxed, which then communicates itself to the students and makes the lesson more effective and interactive. It establishes links between previous and following lessons, reviews and delegates home tasks. The preparation of the lesson plan itself helps the teacher gain an insight into the lesson. In the process, the teacher has to study the text thoroughly. In course of lesson planning, the teacher becomes capable of adopting new ideas and innovations, making the lesson an interesting and effective one. It shows that the teacher is professional, which is a clear indication of a good and effective teacher. Many of our teachers think they do not need lesson plans. They think a textbook is enough for conducting the class. The textbook is essential but the teacher should know how to present the contents of the text to the students. Not only that without a lesson plan the teacher may face problems in introducing the lesson as well as finishing the class effectively. Lesson plans are necessary for structuring a lesson. Another misconception concerning lesson plans is that there is no scope for freedom of teachers. Obviously there is plenty of opportunities of 78 Secondary Teachers Training freedom if a teacher follows a plan. It only guides him/her how to go ahead. New teachers may carefully follow the plan to be confident. Those teachers who use lesson plans usually write a long/detailed lesson plan. As a result, they feel bored while writing it. It is not necessary to write every detail in a lesson plan. Remember, lesson plan is for the teacher. So s/he will write the key points which will guide him/her to conduct the class effectively. Now a short and structured lesson plan has been introduced which has some specific components by which a teacher can take necessary preparation and arrangement for the lesson. The basic components of a typical lesson plan are: Objectives Teaching aids Possible problems Warm- up Activities (following the text) Closing If a teacher can identify all these components before conducting a class and take necessary preparation, undoubtedly s/he will be able to make the class more effective, fruitful and interactive. So, lesson plan is essential for a successful class. Assessment of your Learning 1. How does a lesson plan help a teacher to prepare himself /herself for the lesson? 2. Why should lesson plans be brief and concise? 79 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section A: Why plan a lesson? It tells the teacher what to do. It gives a structure or framework to the lesson. It shows the logical stages and timings of the lesson. It is a record of what has been taught. It helps to plan for future lessons. It can help teachers to anticipate problems in the class and think of solutions. It gives teachers confidence. It shows that the teacher is professional. It can be given to head teachers for inspection. It can be shared with other teachers. It is necessary for the Ministry of Education. Section B: Attitudes to planning 1) Lesson plans are necessary to structure your lesson, giving importance to skills, grammar and vocabulary. If you only follow the book page by page, there is no clear beginning, middle and end to your lesson. 2) You can have freedom even if you follow a plan. A plan is only a guide to the lesson and cannot anticipate everything that will happen during the lesson. New teachers often follow the plan carefully, whereas more experienced teachers can be more flexible. Teachers should not feel constrained by the plan but see it as a support. 80 Secondary Teachers Training 3) Lesson plans should not be too long. If they are more than 1 or 2 pages they will be too detailed and difficult to follow. They should be clearly organised and have logical stages. It needs to be used in the lesson there is no point in memorising a plan – it’s a document to facilitate teaching and learning in the classroom! There is no shame in having a plan and being organised. 4) A lesson plan can structure the lesson and help to ensure that your aims are achieved. 5) New teachers rely on lesson plans far more than experienced teachers. They tend to write more detailed plans and need the guidance that the plan provides. When they have more confidence they can then be more experimental. Section C: Components of a lesson plan, Activity 1 Objectives Possible problems Visual aids Introduction (Warm-up) Activities following the text (in separate stages, with timing) Closing 81 Teaching English- 1 Section C: Components of a lesson plan, activity 2 How are these stages shown in the lesson plan? There are headings and numbered points so that each stage is clearly shown. What are the advantages of this plan? It is easy to follow. It has the title, the aims, the vocabulary to be taught and the possible problems clearly shown at the top. It gives the timings of each section and the model answers so the teacher can teach the lesson smoothly. What are the disadvantages? Some teachers may think it’s too short with not enough detail in it. It does not include the language of instructions. It is based on the Teacher’s Guide which some teachers may not be able to follow. 82 Secondary Teachers Training Session 8 Teaching Speaking 1 Introduction Speaking is the most natural and expressive of all the language skills. It is Speaking direct means of communication listening receptive skill, speaking, productive skill speaking develops by practice the direct means of communication with others. When a person is listening she is not producing the language. She is just receiving the language produced by others. Listening is thus a receptive skill. On the other hand the person who is speaking is actively producing the language. Speaking is thus a productive skill. Like any other practical skill such as swimming, cycling or driving, speaking skill is also developed by practice. Objectives After reading this lesson you will be able to consider the importance of speaking skills reflect on your own experience of speaking practice in school take part in a controlled speaking activity as a learner analyse the stages and purpose of the activity. Section A Are speaking skills important? ‘Do you think speaking skills are important? Why?’ 83 Teaching English- 1 Ans. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section B Reflecting on past experience Think of your own experience of learning English. Write the answers to the following questions A. What speaking practice activities did you have in school? B. What did your teacher do to develop your speaking skill? C. What did you do to improve your speaking skill? Though these activities may have been useful, they are not enough to develop good speaking skill. For example, reading a text aloud only helps pronunciation but does not increase fluency or the ability to take part in a real conversation. Speaking skill develops through practice. These sessions will be examining the kind of practice that students need to do in the classroom to speak English confidently. 84 Secondary Teachers Training Section C Controlled speaking activity demonstration 1. In your typical English class, grade 6 tell your students they are going to experience a simple speaking activity. 2. Controlled speaking activity : enter class greet students draw pictures elicit names model phrases model answer ask class repeat divide class in pairs Enter the room and greet the students saying. Good morning/afternoon, class! Invite a response from the class. 3. Draw pictures of 5 kinds of fruit on the board (bananas, mangoes, pineapples, grapes, apples) or show prepared visual aids. 4. Elicit the names of the fruit from the students and write the names under each picture. 5. Model the following phrases by dividing the class into half. Model the question and invite half of the class to repeat the question after you. Make sure that when you drill in this way, you give the groups a clear visual signal (such as a downward hand movement, in order for them to begin together). 6. Model the answer and invite the other half of the class to repeat the answer. Model different questions and answers until the class are using the phrases confidently. mangoes? bananas? Do you like grapes? apples? pineapples? Yes, I do. No, I don’t. 85 Teaching English- 1 7. Practise the phrases in the same way but invite individual students to repeat the questions and different students to repeat the answers. (open pairs) 8. Divide the class into pairs and ask them to practise asking and answering questions with their partner. (closed pairs) 9. Tell students: That’s all for today, class. Goodbye! Section D Analysis of speaking activity Now think yourself and answer the following questions: What were the stages of the lesson? What was the purpose of each stage? What did the teacher do? What did the students do? How much speaking practice did each student get? Answer: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------86 Secondary Teachers Training Teaching Speaking 1 Key Learning Points Importance of speaking skill Learning a language involves acquiring four language skills. In case of learning English, speaking skill is important for various reasons. Some of these are: To get a good job: Persons who have a good command in spoken English can easily manage a high flying job. Higher study: Students who go for higher studies either abroad or inside the country need to speak English fluently. For business: Most of the time foreign business partners prefer to sit for a dialogue in spite of regular correspondence. So, for smooth running of business the speaking skill is important. Travel: While traveling in foreign countries, speaking is a must. Phone calls: Nowadays communication through phone calls is an essential part in all the fields of life. For effective communication to take place the speaking skill is important. In GT method only two skills, reading and writing are emphasized but listening and speaking are ignored. As most of the teachers are used to practising the GT method, even when they think they are adopting the Communicative Approach they allow students very little chance for speaking practice inside the classroom. What they normally do is answering questions asked by the teacher translated from Bangla to English and vice versa, read loudly, recite poems, etc. But these are not enough to develop the speaking skill. For these there are specific techniques in Communicative Approach. Students must be given chance to 87 Teaching English- 1 practise language inside the classroom. English for Today has lots of activities to do this. Types of speaking practice There are two types of speaking practice to do inside the classroom. 1. Controlled practice: Controlled practice is intensive oral practice using a particular structure, which is controlled by the teacher. The students have no choice or only a limited choice of things to say. The possibility of error is thus reduced to a minimum. The response is controlled in that it must follow a certain pattern on which the teacher is focusing in the lesson. Examples of controlled speaking practice are: Substitution drill Repetition drill Question and answer drill Dialogue practice from the text Gap filling with clues. 2. Free practice: In free speaking practice students have freedom to say things as they understand/think. The teacher only selects the topic and students have the freedom to respond. Examples of free speaking practice are: Describing pictures Open questions and answers Talking about picture Exchanging personal information Talking about any situation Debate 88 Secondary Teachers Training Extempore (speaking on something immediately without rehearsing) Conducting interviews Role play etc. Organization of controlled speaking activity in the classroom To organize controlled speaking activity in the classroom we have to follow four steps: Vocabulary practice: There may be new words in the structure. Students will be introduced first with the new words. Introduce new structure: The teacher will say one sentence based on the structure first. The whole class will follow it. Class practice: The whole class will practice after the teacher. Pair practice : The students of the class then make pairs to practice the structure. Assessment of your learning 1. Why is it important to develop the speaking skill for learning English? 2. Why do your students need controlled and free speaking practice in the classroom? 3. How can you develop your students’ speaking skill? 89 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section A: Importance of speaking skills for getting a high-flying job for higher studies for communicating with foreigners in Bangladesh for travelling to other countries for phone calls to other countries Section B: Reflecting on past experience A. What speaking practice activities did you have in school? Answering questions asked by the teacher Translating from Bangla into English Reading aloud Reciting poems/texts B What did your teacher do to develop your speaking skill? Corrected you when you made mistakes Acted as a model for you to copy Asked you questions to which you replied C. What did you do to improve your speaking skill? (depends on the individual but may include some of the following) talked with the friends talked with other teachers read texts and stories aloud at home watched English movies and other English programmes 90 Secondary Teachers Training Section D: Analysis of speaking activity Stages Purpose The teacher… The students… Vocabulary presentation To review vocabulary elicits names of fruit give the name of the fruit Introduction of new structure To introduce form and show pronunciation models question and answer forms listen to the teacher and repeat the model phrases Class practice of new structure To give students practice with the new structure drills questions and answers (chorally/ open pairs) practise the structure chorally and individually Pair practice of new structure To give students monitors and further practice in corrects where new structure necessary 91 practise in closed pairs Teaching English- 1 Session 9 Classroom Resources 1 Introduction This session will give you idea about different types of classroom resources that you can use in your classroom. It will also explain you how you can use these resources. Besides you will be acquainted with the EfT textbooks which are presently used from class 6 to 10. Further you will know who is responsible for producing these books and there will also be an analysis of the organisation of the text. Objectives At the end of this session you will be able to explain what is meant by classroom resources express reasons why classroom resources are important describe various types of resources analyse the key elements of EfT 1—12 Section A: Definition and varieties of clasroom resources Classroom resources can be defined as instructional materials. In other Resources, instructional teaching materials, varieties : textbook, prime material words these may be termed as teaching materials. Whatever materials the teacher uses in his or her classroom teaching are classroom resources. Varieties of materials can be used as resources. Among all the resources textbook is the prime material. 92 Secondary Teachers Training Activity Now think for five minutes and make a list of items that can be used as classroom resources. You should not include the textbook here. Section B Importance of classroom resources In the previous section you have learnt about resources, can you think of Need resources types, facitates, content, interact, scope, different activity, without resources impossible, activities when, what, why, how the reasons why do you need resources? What are the types of resources would you like to use in your class ? If you fail to answer, have a look at the description below. Teaching learning activities are conducted in the classroom so that students can learn. With the help of the classroom resources the teacher facilitates the activities in the classroom and the students take part in the activities to learn the content of the lesson. Teachers show them the way how to interact with the teacher as well as with other students. Usually there is scope for different types of activities that brings variety to the lessons. These activities are directed on the basis of the resources available. Without any resources it is not possible for the teacher and students to take part in any activities. Here lies the importance of resources. The resources give guidelines to both teachers and students what to do, when to do, how to do and for what purpose. 93 Teaching English- 1 Activity Now let us try to find out the importance of resources. Write in the following box 3 statements describing the importance of classroom resources. 1. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 94 Secondary Teachers Training Section-C Structure of EfT EfT structure, skills based, In Bangladesh a series of textbooks have been developed for classes 1— 12. These books are developed on the basis of the principles of learning a listening, language by actually practising the skills of listening, speaking , reading speaking, and writing in an interactive mode. The main objective is to provide reading, opportunities for the students to use the language in various situations writing, and develop their language skills. The structure of the present EfT is : opportuni-ties of practice, 1. Objectives of the Lesson units, lessons, 2. Units sections, 3. Lessons exercises 4. Sections There are different sections that contain the topics of the lessons, various activities and assessment. There are pictures, tables and charts which are all functional. Teachers are required to know how to organise activities and assess students’ learning following the sections in the textbook. 95 Teaching English- 1 Activity: Now collect an EfT of class VII. Open the book and look at Unit four Lesson five, go through the text and identify the sections and write down which sections are for developing which skill. Sections Skills 96 Secondary Teachers Training Classroom Resources Key learning points Learning a foreign language in the context of Bangladesh is highly dependent on a textbook. Though there are some other materials like chalk board, teachers’ guide but still there is no perfect substitute to the text as both teachers and students are not confident enough to use any other materials. Bangladesh being a developing country only can afford a textbook that is provided to the students free of cost. Textbook satisfies the academic needs of the students and the subject matter of the text is sequenced to deal with the language problems which students encounter. The students acquire information via language and thus their language skills are developed. Finally the students are able to transfer these skills to other academic courses. Since the philosophy of learning principle conveys us that any teaching should be built on the previous experience of the learner, through the series of texts this principle is maintained. On the basis of their past knowledge, the present knowledge can be graded. Modern research in second language acquisition suggests that in learning a language, input is an essential pre-requisite. This ‘input’ in the target language is possible to impart through the text. So, we see that the role of text in learning English can in no way be denied by anybody. The most convincing point in favour of textbook is that if the selection of textbook is good one, the teaching learning situation may be productive, otherwise the whole program might be a waste one! In Bangladesh the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) produces the English for Today (FfT) series for Classes 1—12. These books have been developed on the basic principles of Communicative Language Teaching Approach. 97 Teaching English- 1 Other than the content there are pictures, dialogues, diagrams, and short poems to provide students adequate spaces for interesting activities. Activities are designed in such a way that there is scope for practising all four skills. Along with the textbook a teachers’ guide also has been developed to provide the experienced as well as the inexperienced or novice teachers clear cut ideas to facilitate lessons in an appropriate manner. In advanced countries teachers use additional materials in the class to give varieties of experiences to the students. These may include story books, newspaper and magazine articles, teaching cards and different types of teaching aids. Assessment of your learning 1. In your opinion what is the function of a textbook? 2. What is the usual structure of an EfT ? 3. What may be the consequences of an inappropriate text? 4. Do you think that teachers’ guide is essential for all teachers ? Give reasons in favour of your answer. 98 Secondary Teachers Training Probable Answers: Section A: Definition and varieties of classroom resources Activity 1. Magazine 4. Story book 2. Journal 5. Workbook 3. Newspaper Section B: Importance of classroom resources Activity 1. Classroom resources give students reason to read and learn something. 2. Resources guide teachers to conduct class activities properly. 3. Resources give guidelines to assessment of learning. Section C: Structure of EfT Activity 1 Answers Section A – Speaking (Asking and answering questions) Section B – Reading Section C – Speaking Section D – Writing 99 Teaching English- 1 Session 10 Teaching Reading 1 Introduction This session will give you idea about the reasons for reading and the problems we face in reading. It will also define what we usually mean by reading and what are the different types of reading. There will be descriptions of comparisons among the three approaches to developing reading. Objectives At the end of this session you will be able to: identify the reasons for reading and problems of reading compare three approaches of developing reading skills explain the merits and demerits of reading aloud and silent reading Section A Introduction to Reading Receive information use background knowledge, reading essential, foreign language, learners acquainted structure, usage Reading is a kind of activity that a person does to receive and comprehend information from a text. Usually a reader uses his or her background knowledge to develop a new meaning from the reading. Reading is an essential activity for any learner of any language. Specially in learning a foreign language it is very important since through reading the learner gets acquainted with the structure and usage of the language. We usually read newspapers, shopping list, public signs, posters, letters, novels, internet information, instructions, magazines etc. Can you think of why do we read these things? 100 Secondary Teachers Training Problems unknown words, difficult construction, complicated arguments lack of time process reading There are varieties of purposes of our reading, such as for information, for pleasure, for examination. The problems we do face during reading are; unknown words, difficult construction of sentences, complicated arguments, and lack of time to process our reading. Section B Types of Reading Reading is mainly done in two ways : reading aloud and reading silently. Appropriate, beginners improve, pronunciation reading sound, speaking text, connections sound spelling Reading aloud: It is appropriate for the beginners at their elementary level since at this period they are required to improve their pronunciation. Reading aloud is a very popular way of dealing with textbook in the class. Reading aloud means reading with sound. That means when anyone reads aloud and other person can hear and understand that type of reading is called reading aloud. It is actually speaking with the help of a reading text. It can help students make the connection between sound and spelling. Silent reading: Research, with favour, silent reading, comprehension, brain, eyes work understanding deep meaning Research conducted in the nineteenth century came out with strong evidence in favour of silent reading. The majority of the reading that we do all through our life is done silently. Whenever the aim of reading is comprehension, it must be done in silence. It is faster than reading aloud because both brain and eyes work together. To be able to read rapidly is an essential skill for all students. Silent reading helps better understanding of the text and one can go deep into the meaning of the text. 101 Teaching English- 1 Activity 1: Here are names of some materials. First you go through the list then categorise them according to reading aloud and silent reading: Newspaper, story book, classroom text, announcement, elementary text, notice, shopping list, Magazine, personal letter, advertisement Section C Merits and demerits of reading aloud and silent reading Merits of reading aloud: Merits, improve pronunciation intonation, stress, effective attention, rhythm, removes shyness, activate vocal organs easy, helpful blinds Through reading aloud we can improve our pronunciation, intonation and stress. It is quite effective to pay attention to the study. It makes the rhythm of reading. Removes shyness of some people. It activates the vocal organ of a reader. Children feel easy to read aloud. It is also helpful for the blinds. Demerits of reading aloud : Demerits : kills time, requires lot of energy reader, tired one student active, comprehension not possible, hampres speed It kills a lot of class time. Requires a lot of energy so readers become tired very quickly. Only one student becomes active at a time. Focus is on the pronunciation so comprehension is not possible. Disturbs other studies, attention and activities. Not suitable for students of upper grades. Hampers reading speed. 102 Secondary Teachers Training Merits of silent reading: Merits : silent reading special concentration, critical study, saves energy, time Special concentration is possible for thoughtful critical study for research work. Essential for study in public places, like library and classroom. Helps to understand a text easily. Readers do not become tired so easily. Does not require any special situation. It saves time and energy. It helps a reader to be skilled in rapid reading. Demerits of silent reading: No corection deception lower grades There is no scope for correction of pronunciation. It is not suitable for lower grades. Deception is possible in classroom. It can not remove the shyness of a reader. Not suitable for recitation of a poem. Activity 2: Take a text of considerable length, suppose containing two paragraphs and start reading the text. Take a watch to keep record of your reading time. Read the text twice, first aloud and then silently. Now write a short report of your reading, how much time did it take in reading aloud and in reading silently, also mention whether you could comprehend the text while reading aloud. 103 Teaching English- 1 Section D Beliefs about reading Let us have a look at the three case studies of secondary school teachers whose attitudes towards reading have been presented in these studies. Case 1 Teacher A: S/he possesses the idea that reading means going through a text with appropriate sounds and intonation. His/her opinion is that the teacher should give a model reading to the students so that they can follow an exemplary model and help his/her students correct their pronunciation. For this reason s/he puts emphasis on having students reading aloud each section of the text and let them know the difficult words. Case 2 Teacher B: Her/his belief is that reading skill can be achieved only through reading silently. So s/he designs classroom activities in a way that gives students ample opportunities to practise different types of reading skills. S/he thinks reading means getting information and likes to help students to receive the information from the text. So s/he organises activities to help her/his students to understand varieties of texts. S/he does not believe in reading aloud and does not let students read aloud in class. S/he thinks that pronunciation is different thing and this should be practised separately. 104 Secondary Teachers Training Case 3 Teacher C: This teacher’s aim is to help students comprehend the information in the text to be able to answer the questions. As a result s/he spends most of the class time in explanation of the content of the lesson. S/he also explains the new words, their meaning to make students able not to miss any little bit of information because of unfamiliar words. To him/her reading a text means to acquire a lot of vocabulary and to learn new structures. Activity 3 As you have gone through all the cases, now think for five minutes and decide who is your model teacher and give reasons for that. 105 Teaching English- 1 Teaching Reading 1 Key Learning Points Reading is very important for any person in his or her personal, social, academic and professional life. It is very much related to personal development. Reading experts have classified reading as reading aloud and silent reading. Both the types have merits and demerits. Reading aloud Merits Reading aloud is very important in language learning, specially for the students of lower grades. Through reading aloud students can learn pronunciation of words. The children learn nursery rhymes, verse, poems through reading aloud. It is very important for recitation of poem. Reading aloud builds a bond between teacher and students. It identifies wrong pronunciation, influence of dialect, disabilities of speech etc. and helps to pronounce correctly. The blind reader can acquire knowledge listening to the aloud reading of others. Demerits If all students read at a time it makes classroom noisy and prevents teacher to identify any student’s mistakes. As students are busy in paying attention to pronunciation, they can not understand the text. It is ineffective in comprehensive, analytical, appreciative and intensive study. Students cannot read faster. Students become easily tired. It is not suitable for upper grades and not possible all the time. 106 Secondary Teachers Training Silent Reading Merits Silent reading is very important in acquiring knowledge and practice. Most of the time we read silently, so our students should practise it. Silent reading is needed for research, critical study, creative thinking etc. It does not require any special environment. It helps a reader to pay more attention to study of one’s own. Demerits Some students take the help of deceit in silent reading. Assessment of your learning: 1. After going through this section what type of reading would you support ? Give evidence to support your answer. 107 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers: Activity 2 Silent reading Newspaper, Magazines, Reading aloud Story book, Announcement Personal letter, Classroom text, Notice elementary text board, Shopping list classroom text, notice board Activity 3 I support case 2 teacher B Reasons: I think silent reading is the type of reading that we do all through our life. So we should practise silent reading to develop our reading skill. While reading we should try to comprehend the text and try to get the information from the text. It is not necessary to understand the meaning of each and every word of a text. Readers should understand the meaning of new words from the context. 108 Secondary Teachers Training Session 11 Teaching Pronunciation 1 Introduction This session will introduce you with the attitudes of teachers towards teaching pronunciation. Besides there will be opportunities for you to reflect on your past and present experiences of learning pronunciation. In learning a foreign language pronunciation plays an important role. For this reason this session will focus on the basic elements of pronunciation. Objectives At the end of this session you will be able to express the common attitudes towards teaching pronunciation describe your past and present experiences of learning pronunciation identify the basic elements of pronunciation. Section A Beliefs about pronunciation Let us have a look at 6 different views that different teachers expressed about pronunciation. Teacher 1: My aim is to teach my students to speak in American accent. American accent is more acceptable than British. Teacher 2: In my opinion students should learn to speak with correct pronunciation, so that they can speak like British people. Teacher 3: I think if the students can make themselves understood to the speakers of other countries, that is enough. Teacher 4: Pronunciation is not a subject of teaching. Anyone can learn it naturally. 109 Teaching English- 1 Teacher 5: I am not satisfied with my own pronunciation, so I can’t teach pronunciation. Teacher 6: In each class period we should spend at least 10 minutes time in the practice of pronunciation. Activity 1 Do you support any of the opinions ? If your answer is positive, mention at least three reasons. Now you can consider the following facts about pronunciation and build up your own opinion. Do you know one interesting fact about pronunciation? Pronunciation varies even among the native speakers of any language. In the same way pronunciation of English varies as much within the UK as all over the world. So you should keep in mind that in learning English our students may aspire for native like pronunciation but if they fail there is no harm. Our aim should be to achieve a level which is intelligible to the international community. Recent trend in learning a language is that it should be mutually intelligible. If anyone wishes to follow any model there should be valid reason for that. In spite of any personal preferences you should let your students know that in Bangladesh we follow British pronunciation in our primary and secondary curriculum. As a teacher of English you will raise the awareness of your students of certain key elements of pronunciation. You may not possess the perfect accent but you can show them the basic principles of pronunciation rules that will guide them pronounce the words intelligibly to others. 110 Secondary Teachers Training Activity 2: Now reflect on your own experiences of learning pronunciation in the past and present and answer the questions. 1. How did you learn to pronounce English words ? 2. How do you try to improve your pronunciation ? Section B Reflection on Learning Pronunciation Learning pronunciation, imitation of teacher, access radio, television difficulty in pronuncing sound/v/w/j/z/p/f mispronunce words. In the previous section you have reflected on your own learning of English pronunciation. Probably you have got the idea that most of the people in Bangladesh learn pronunciation from imitation of other people and specially from following their teachers. Nowadays people have access to radio, television and some other sources that can be their model for correct pronunciation. The main difficulty we face in pronouncing certain consonant sounds like v/ /w/ /j/ /z/ /p/ /f/ etc. Again there are some silent letters in some words. We tend to mispronounce the words as we do not have clear idea about stress and intonation. [ Activity: Here are some words for your pronunciation check. Read the words aloud. Village Tsunami said wind jam vision zoo pneumonia sugar sewing After you complete your pronunciation, psychology oven check your own pronunciation through consulting a standard English to English dictionary. 111 Teaching English- 1 Section C Elements of teaching pronunciation Part One: pronunciation dialogue Now you have got some ideas about pronunciation. Could you go through the following dialogue and try to find out the pronunciation problems that our students may face in reading the dialogue ? Kalim :Who’s that old person, Fatima ? 1 Fatima :He’s my grandfather, Kalim. 2 Kalim :What’s his job ? 3 Fatima : He helps my father on the farm. 4 Kalim : How does he help ? 5 Fatima : He gives advices and opinions. 6 He is a very wise person. 7 He travelled many countries and knows many things. 8 He tells us about his experiences. 9 His stories are very interesting and enjoyable. 10 Part Two: Pronunciation analysis of the dialogue In line 1 Who’s that old person ? The sound of ‘s’ is voiced here. (you will get idea of this in later sessions.) While asking a question , the way we use our voice is called rising intonation. In line 2 the word ‘grandfather’ is made up of 3 syllables. The stress will be on the word Grand. (Syllables will also be discussed in later sessions.) 112 Secondary Teachers Training In line 3 there is another ‘s’ this is also a voiced sound. In line 4 there are two words, farm, father. In these words the ‘a’ is pronounced long so it is a long ‘a’ sound. In this line the words, helps, father, farm will be stressed. You can understand this when you read the sentence naturally. In line 5 There is a question so this will also require a rising intonation. In line 6 there is a connection between the ‘s’ in advices and the ‘a’ in and. This element of pronunciation is known as a connected speech. It is usually done to make the pronunciation easier. Because we can not stop between words. In line 7 The intonation pattern of this sentence is falling one. A normal declarative sentence always ends in falling tone. In line 8 the words many, things, travelled, countries will be stressed. In line 9 the word ‘about’ will be difficult for the students to pronounce. Here this word acts as the connected link in the speech. In line 10 This will also require a falling intonation but the words ‘very’, ‘interesting’ and ‘enjoyable’ will be stressed. Activity: Read the following sentences and try to find out the pattern of intonation and stress. 1. Where do you come from? 2. I have come from Khulna. 113 Teaching English- 1 Teaching Pronunciation Key Learning Points In the meantime you have got the idea that there are different opinions on teaching pronunciation. Learning perfect pronunciation may be difficult though we can achieve the level of intelligibility through practice. This is the main consideration in learning a language. So you should not worry much about your pronunciation. At an early stage if the children get the opportunity to be acquainted with the native accent they can speak with native like accent. But this becomes very difficult in case of adult learners. English is used all over the world but with some kind of variation of each country. Different countries use different accent, so it is not possible to learn all the accents. What you can do with your students is to make them aware of certain key elements of pronunciation. In Bangladesh, we usually follow the British accent. We should give our students lessons on stress, intonation, sounds etc. Opportunities should be created to go through the IPA and guide them use the dictionary to find out the correct pronunciation of words. In this way they will feel responsible for learning the correct pronunciation by themselves. Assessment of your learning: 1. Why is pronunciation important in learning a language ? 2. How can you help your students to learn correct pronunciation ? 114 Secondary Teachers Training Probable Answers: Section A: Activity 1 I support teacher 3 because English is not our mother tongue so we may not be able to pronounce the words like a native speaker of English. If we can make ourselves comprehensible to the foreigners, I think that will be enough for us. Activity 2 1. I learnt to pronounce words imitating from my teacher at school. 2. I try to improve my pronunciation by watching English movies, listening to radio etc. Section B: Activity Words Pronunciation Village /vIlIdʒ/ Said /sed/ Jam /dʒæm/ Zoo /zu:/ Pneumonia /nju:məʊnIə/ Psychology /saIkɒlədʒI/ Tsunami /tsʊnʌmI/ Wind /wInd/ Vision /vIʒn/ Sugar /∫ʊgə(r)/ Section C: Activity 1 Answers: 1. Rising intonation. 2. Falling intonation. 115 Teaching English- 1 Session 12 Teaching writing 1 Introduction This session will introduce you with the ideas related to the importance of teaching writing skill. It will also give you opportunities to reflect on your own experiences of learning writing skill and analyzing varieties of writing activities. Objectives At the end of this session you will be able to describe the importance of writing reflect on your own experience of learning writing skill analyze varieties of writing activities. Section A The Importance of Writing Writing expressive art, keep record, strong reinforcement, benefit seeing written form, assessed through writing, develop accuracy in language use Writing is an expressive art and an important mode of communication. Writing is used to express our ideas, feelings, desires etc. to our own selves as well as to the readers. We write to keep a record of what one learns in specific fields. Writing is a strong reinforcement. Students attend classes in oral practice but they are benefited most from seeing the written form of the language. It is through writing students are assessed of their learning. Students take notes in writing. In addition to that for employment, and for developing accuracy in using language writing is important. Students can practise writing of their own and can correct their own mistakes. From this practice they can use correct language and can avoid mistakes. 116 Secondary Teachers Training Activity: Do you agree with the description of importance of writing in section A? Add 5 sentences more to give your own opinion on the importance of Writing. Section B Reflection on writing experience Remember experience of writing, home or school? who helped, what type of writing style of writing Can you remember of your own experience of writing? When did you start writing first? Did you start writing at home or school? Who helped you to learn writing? Was your teacher very helpful in learning writing? What kind of writing did you write in your school? What is your own style of writing? Activity: Now write some statements answering the questions given for your reflection. Section C Analyzing writing activities You have already reflected on your experience of writing. Let us see whether your experience matches with the present situation of Bangladesh. In our country students usually first start writing at school by copying from blackboard writing of the teacher. They do not have much opportunity to practise writing. Whatever practice they do in the class is mostly dependent on their memorization. They do not practise any creativity in their writing. Students need help from their teachers to develop their writing skill. So you should show your students the way how they can practise and develop their skill. In a classroom situation teachers 117 Teaching English- 1 First copy from blackboard opportunity practice depend memorization classroom situation monitor assist should monitor and provide assistance when required. Here is an example of a table that you can use to give your students to practise writing. Asma gets up at 5 o’clock goes to school everyday reads in class VI every evening helps her mother at 10 o’clock likes to have dinner Activity 1: Make a substitution table to give your students writing practice. At this stage you should know that writing practice can be done at three levels ie Controlled, Guided and Free. These are discussed below: Controlled: At this level students select their appropriate words from a given list and write according to the instruction. Here they do not have any freedom. They write in a highly controlled atmosphere. Students do not do any mistake. The table in this section is an example of controlled writing. Guided: This level is less controlled. They take one example first then they write of their own following the structure of the example. Here students write with minimal guidance. A sample paragraph is given to the students and they write following the given model. Free: At this stage students write freely of their own. No words, phrases or examples are given. Students are asked to write of their own often on a given topic or subject. This helps students to develop extended composition skill. They choose their own vocabulary and structure. 118 Secondary Teachers Training Activity 2: Identify and categorise the writing activity from Lesson- 8 Unit- 2 Eft- Class VII in the following table. Unit no. Lesson no. Section 119 Writing activity Teaching English- 1 Teaching Writing 1 Key Learning Points From the previous discussion you have already got the idea that writing is one of the basic skills of language. Writing means expressing one’s ideas, feelings, wishes and imaginations to other people staying at far away from the writer’s place. Writing plays a very important role in developing students’ speaking skill also. It reinforces language what they have learnt before orally. Students’ achievement in any subject is assessed through writing. So writing is considered as an examination skill. Writing practice breaks the monotony of the classroom activities of reading and speaking. Students get the opportunity to have a kind of relief from the vigorous activities of listening, speaking, and reading. But it is a matter of great regret that in Bangladesh students do not have requisite skill in writing. Students usually practise grammatical structures and reading comprehension, as a result writing is neglected. Regular practice of all three levels viz. controlled, guided and free can help students develop their writing skill. Assessment of your learning: 1. Why can’t our students write freely ? 2. How can you develop your students’ free writing skill ? 120 Secondary Teachers Training Probable Answers: Section A Activity Writing is very important skill in learning a language. It is considered an effective channel of learning. Writing helps to develop our language skills further. Students are usually evaluated through written tests. We can correct out own mistakes through writing. Section B Activity We usually start writing at school. In case of writing sentences some of us get assistance from our family members but while developing writing paragraph we receive help from our teachers. Sentence making from given words/tables. Fill in the blanks, information transfer, writing from a model etc. Writing styles vary from person to person. Some like to write diaries, some like to write stories, poems, letters etc. Section C Activity 1 Answers: Writing activity in Lesson 2, Unit 3, EfT 8 a) Completing a dialogue by filling gaps in a paragraph. b) Writing a dialogue following a given model. Activity 2 Answer: Substitution table. Sabina I / S/he They S/he Ali /Nazma likes to like to loves to would go to does not like to 121 play Cricket paint pictures watch English movies. chittagong next week. working in the sun. Teaching English- 1 Session 13 Lesson Planning 2 Introduction Planning is an important stage in doing any work. Similarly, in teaching lesson plan is very essential, so you will learn about the rational for effective lesson planning from this session. It will give you the idea about various constituents of attainable objectives of any lesson. Objectives At the end of this session you will be able to differentiate between effective and ineffective lesson plans identify the different components of a lesson plan find out the objectives from a lesson Section A Guidelines of effective planning Let us have a look at the sample lesson plan Class- 7 Enter into the class and ask “How are you?” Call students’ names (Roll call) Ask students to open book and look at the picture and discuss with partner. Ask students questions. If they fail to answer help them and write the correct answer on board. Give meaning of new words. Read the text and give meaning in Bangla. Ask one or two students to read the text aloud. 122 Secondary Teachers Training Ask students questions on the text. Thank the able students. Set home work Clean the board and take leave of the students. Objectives : to practise language skills. Activity: Now, try to find out the weak points of the above lesson plan. Section B A Good Lesson Plan (Sample) Could you find out some weak points of the previous plan ? Here is an example of good plan: Name of school: Class: VII Teacher’s name: Unit 3 Roll No: Title of the lesson: Letter from Australia Session: No. of students: Boys--------- Lesson 8 Part-2 Girls-------- Time : 35 min. Date Objectives: By the end of the lesson learners will have1. guessed the cultural traditions of some other countries and practised speaking. 2. listened to a talk about some families and found appropriate adjectives to describe them(listening, vocabulary). 3. written down the characteristics of the people of Australia and some other countries. 4. used the vocabulary : seamistress, carve, aborigine Possible problem : Timing of lesson Teaching aids: Listening text (EfT), story book Warm up : 5 min 1. Set the scene by asking : Do you know any person from any other country ? Have you observed them when they face any problem ? 123 Teaching English- 1 How did they solve the problem ? Introduce today’s lesson title : Letters from Australia (Part-2) Procedure: Section A 5 min 2. Ask students to look at the picture in EfT and match the caption. 3. Ask students to check their answers in pairs. 4. Make sure that everyone understands the picture. Section: B 10 min 5. Introduce the new vocabulary items Aborigine : A member of the race of people with derk skins who were the first people to live in Australia. Seamstress : Old fashioned a woman whose job is sewing and making clothes. Carve : to make something by cutting into wood or stone. 6. Explain the task : find out the words that describe the characters mentioned in the text. 7. Let the students read the text for 10 minutes. 8. Let the students discuss in pairs. 9. Check answers with the whole class. Section: C 10 min 10. Ask students to do the rest of the sections in their text. 11. Provide help while necessary. 12. Ask students to do the activities that are set for the lesson. 13. Ask a few students to review on what they have learnt from today’s lesson. Closing 5 min 14. Summarise the lesson. 15. Assigning homework : Suppose you met an American, now write a paragraph of at least 10 sentences describing that person. Activity: You have got two examples of lesson plans, can you make a comparison between the two plans ? Write down the strong points of the good lesson plan. 124 Secondary Teachers Training Section C: Components of the lesson plan Lesson plan components : class, lesson, topic objective, teaching aids, warmup, division activities, time feedback, home work The structure of a good lesson plan should contain the following steps: Name of the class, Unit no., Lesson title, topic Objectives: general, specific Possible problems and solutions Teaching aids Warm up activities Division of whole lesson Activities to be done and timing Feedback, Homework. Activity: Take a copy of EfT-class 7 Go to unit 1, lesson 14, What kind of warm up activity can you use for this lesson? Section D: Objectives of a lesson In the previous sections you have got idea about the structure of a lesson plan. You have seen that objectives of a lesson is important because objectives give us the guideline on the classroom activities. Sometimes it seems to be difficult to determine the objectives of a lesson. Aims are Objective guideline content of lesson bahavioural terms achieve assess related to the general objectives of the lesson but objectives are directly related to the content of the lesson. As a teacher you should learn how to write the objectives. Objectives should be written in behavioural terms using action verb. Objectives should be written in such a language that the students can achieve and teachers can assess them at the end of the lesson and write them using action verb. Activity: Take an EfT of class VIII, Unit—5, Lesson—3 find out the objectives of the lesson. 125 Teaching English- 1 Lesson Planning 2 Key Learning Points At this stage you have already got idea about the structure of a lesson plan. You have also got the idea that without planning a lesson you cannot conduct the class efficiently. For this reason teachers are required to practise planning a lesson, identifying a bad or a good lesson plan. Teachers should know what are the stages of a good lesson plan and how to find out the objectives of a lesson. The stages of a lesson plan should be followed perfectly otherwise the lesson will be ineffective one. Sometimes it seems difficult to identify the objective from a lesson, so as a practising teacher you should practise identifying the objectives from a lesson and write them in action verb. You will have to identify the activities through which the students will be able to achieve the objectives and develop their skill. Allocation of time in a class period according to the activities should be also mentioned in the plan. Teachers should also be able to think of useful teaching aids that will help the students comprehend the lesson in an effective way. predicting possible problems in implementing the plan is another area that a teacher should pay attention to. At last the teacher should think of a homework that the students find interesting and relevant to their lesson. 126 Secondary Teachers Training Assessment of your learning: Prepare a lesson plan on Lesson—3, Unit –5, EfT-VI Probable Answers: Section A Activity This is not an organized plan. All the required steps have not been followed. More over this plan seems to be teacher dominated. Section B Activity The previous plan is a weak plan in the form of a note. There is no scope for students’ activity. Interaction has been avoided. All the activities are teacher centered. Good lesson plans are developed step by step giving details of every activity. All the stages are organized in an appropriate manner. 127 Teaching English- 1 Section C Activity A warm up activity for Lesson 8, Unit 2, EfT 7 may be like this: This lesson is about experiment. What you can do, take a comb, and some small pieces of paper, ask one of your students come forward and comb his/her hair rapidly and place the comb on top of the pieces of paper then show your students how energy is produced through friction of hair and the comb resulting the comb lifting the pieces of paper to stick to it. In this way you can ask your students, what kind of activity is this? Some of the answers will be ‘experiment’, now this is your time to announce the title of the lesson. As a teacher you have to have innovative ideas to start the lesson. 128 Secondary Teachers Training Session 14 Teaching Vocabulary Introduction From this session you will learn about the importance of teaching Vocabulary. It will also introduce you with some techniques of presentation of new vocabulary. In addition to that this session will give you idea about the strengths and weaknesses of various techniques of presenting new vocabulary. Objectives At the end of this session you will be able to explain the importance of teaching vocabulary apply various techniques while teaching vocabulary in a class identify the strengths and weaknesses of various techniques. Section A : Importance of Learning Vocabulary Vocab: important express ideas, large number required correct grammar, expression effective communication both vocabulary and grammar In learning a language vocabulary plays an important role. Without vocabulary we can not express any ideas. If we want to communicate effectively we need to possess a large number of vocabulary. Of course in our expression we have to use correct grammar also. Effective communication is possible only when we can use both vocabulary and grammatical form appropriately. Students’ expressive power can be improved a lot by helping them to acquire a good stock of vocabulary. 129 Teaching English- 1 Activity: Give the meaning of the following words in English and make meaningful sentences with them. Refuse (v) Refuse (n) Rubbish Desert (v) Desert (n) Kick (v) Kick (n) Laziness Sneeze (n) Cough (n) Ginger Section B: Techniques of presentation of vocabulary Techniques of vocabulary: presentation, realia, drawing, mime, example, definition, synonym, antonym, translation You can adopt a number of techniques while presenting a new vocabulary in a class. Details of the techniques you will get in key learning points. Usually the techniques may include: realia, drawing, mime, example, definition, synonym, antonym, and translation. Activity: Here are some words. Think of some techniques for clarifying the meaning of them and write the name of techniques in the appropriate column. words techniques words techniques words sorrow active culture Invite feast current ambition danger debut pride manage purple 130 techniques Secondary Teachers Training Section C: Strengths and weaknesses of each technique As you have learnt about different techniques for presenting new words, probably you have also got the idea that not all the techniques are self sufficient, sometimes you need to combine them and use together. So let us see the strengths and weaknesses of the techniques. 1.Realia: Strengths: It is easy to understand the meaning interesting, Realia, easy, interesting, difficult and helps students to associate with ideas. It saves teachers’ time and for teacher picture : energy. Students can remember them for long. available, motivating Weaknesses: It may be difficult for a teacher to procure or the teacher attractive aid may not afford to buy the real thing. Again teacher may forget to bring them in the class. 2. Pictures: Strengths: Pictures are easily available, motivating and attractive aid. These are memorable also. Weaknesses: All the relevant pictures may not be available. While required the teacher may not be able to draw the picture on the board. 3. Mime: Strengths: This technique is motivating, enjoyable and friendly. It can be presented immediately. Mime: enjoyable, friendly, exact expression may not be possible Definition : easy understand, more opportunities time consuming ideas may not possible Weaknesses: A teacher may not be expert at acting out the exact expression. All the concepts or actions are not possible to present through mime. 4. Definition: Strengths: It is easy to understand and students have more opportunities to use the language. Weaknesses: Time consuming and if the teacher is not experienced one, s/he may not be able to express the ideas through language. 5. Examples: Strengths: It can be interesting if related to the students’ lives. It brings variety to the lesson. Weaknesses: Teachers are required to prepare the lesson very carefully and select the examples appropriately to make the meaning clear. 131 Teaching English- 1 Examples : interesting, lively, bring variety Teachers need care, select examples properly Translation : most easiest saves time, meaning may not be proper, less exposure to language 6. Translation: Strengths: This is the most easiest technique for a teacher. It saves class time. Weaknesses: Meaning always may not be proper one. It follows traditional method and students have less exposure to language. Activity: Now think of some words and then match them with appropriate techniques. Avoid the words that have been used in the previous section. Words Techniques 132 Words Techniques Secondary Teachers Training Teaching Vocabulary Key Learning Points From the discussion of the previous sections you have got the idea that without vocabulary we can not communicate our ideas and thoughts in an appropriate manner. In our daily life conversation we perceive meaning preferable to grammar. For this reason teachers should learn the techniques of vocabulary presentation. There are a number of techniques from which the teacher can choose according to the subject. Some common techniques include : Realia Chart Definition Synonym Picture Model Translation Contextualization Mime Example Antonym You have already gone through the details of these techniques. A teacher should plan his/her lesson well ahead of time, s/he should think which of the techniques s/he is going to use for the lesson. In a single lesson you may require to use more than one technique. Even a single word may need more than one technique. So a teacher should carefully select techniques appropriate to the vocabulary or lesson. Assessment of your learning: As a teacher which of the techniques will you feel comfortable to use in your class ? Give reasons. 133 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers: Section A Activity Word meaning: Refuse----waste(n), unwilling to give or accept something. Rubbish----waste material. Cough—sound of coughing, send out air from lungs violently and noisily. Desert----barren land (n), go away from a place without intending to ever return(v). Kick----hit with foot(v), act of kicking(n). Laziness--- showing unwillingness to work or any activity. Ginger—a kind of spice. Sentences: Refuse (v) – She refused to accept the offer. Refuse (n) – Nobody should leave refuse on the road. Rubbish – Don’t throw rubbish on the street. Desert (v) – The old woman deserted this area long ago. Desert (n) – The climate of desert area is very dry. Kick (v) – The horse kicked the lamb violently. Kick (n) – Maradona knows different techniques of kicking. Laziness – Laziness is a curse for a nation like Bangladesh. Sneeze (n) – Common cold often causes sneeze. Cough (n) – Dirt may be the cause of cough for some people. Ginger – Ginger is a great remedy of common cough. 134 Secondary Teachers Training Answers Section B Activity words techniques words Techniques sorrow Picture/ mime/ active Definition/ explanation definition kite Picture/ drawing current Definition/antonym ambition Definition/ translation deceit Definition/ explanation techniques words Techniques gloomy Facial expressions strong Mime/pictures celebrate Definition/ explanation match Picture/definition reward synonym Picture/explanation Section C Activity wo rds fertiliser 135 Teaching English- 1 Session 15 Classroom Management Introduction This session gives you the idea of the classroom management. You will be acquaintad with the meaning of classroom management and you will also find your answers to the question on the use of language in the class. Moreover you will learn different classroom instructions. Objectives At the end of the session you will be able to define the meaning of classroom management express your ideas about the use of language in class use clear instructions in classroom situation Section A Meaning of classroom management Classroom management special skill, can handle class efficiently first physical learning, teacher student relationship, student-student relationship, use of appropriate language, discipline in a large class and teachers presentation skill Management of a class requires special skill. As a teacher of English you need to know how you can handle your class efficiently. Whenever we think of classroom management firstly it is related to the physical learning environment. Then comes the establishment of relationship among the students and relationship between teacher and students, use of appropriate language in the classroom instructions so that they are clear enough for students understanding. Maintaining discipline in a large class is also a part of classroom management. Besides, a teacher should learn to handle the resources and conduct activities within a given time. Teachers’ presentation skill is also an important management skill. 136 Secondary Teachers Training Activity: You have already got the idea of classroom management. Now think for 5 minutes and list 5 activities that you seem very important for managing a class. Section B The Use of Language in Class People often argue on the issue of the use of language in class. Some argue that “Only English should be used in class.” There are also opinions against this statement. Some possible cons and pros are highlighted here for your consideration. Pros accustomed to English, Teacher improves language opportunity for students, target language, exposure to new vocabulary Cons Pose difficulty for students, novice teacher, reduce confidence, fail to follow, instructions , feel shy speaking, Pros Cons Students get accustomed to Initially it may pose difficulty for the students. the sounds of English Helps teachers to improve their For the novice teachers it may own language skills. Encourages students to speak reduce their level of confidence. English. Creates opportunities for Students may get confused and students to use the target may fail to follow the instructions. language as they do this at home. not get Students may feel shy and refrain Students get exposure to new from speaking. Students may not have that much vocabulary. Helps to develop students’ Proficiency to follow lecture. listening skill. 137 Teaching English- 1 Activity: Which one of the above mentioned pros or cons do you support? Mentioning the statements give your reasons against each you have selected. Section C Giving Instructions in English Classroom instructions should be given in the simplest form of English that all the teachers can implement easily and students can follow. For the first time it may create problem for the students as they are not used to English. But after a while they will get used to it. For effective management of the class instructions are very important. Activity 1 Complete the following instructions: 1.---------------------your book, please. 2.--------------------down. 3.--------------------to the board. 4.--------------------the door, please. 5.---------------------to your seat. 6.---------------------your home work. Activity 2 Take a copy of EfT of class VIII, select lesson-2, unit—5, now write down the instructions you may use for this lesson. 138 Secondary Teachers Training Classroom Management Key Learning Points In any teaching learning situation, the management of class is very important as effective learning requires discipline and good instructions. The issue that has been discussed in the previous section is related to the behaviours of both teachers and students. Because in an effective classroom both teachers and students work together in a congenial atmosphere favourable to successful learning. Classroom management includes: a. handling of the physical learning environment b. rapport among the students and between the teacher and the students c. use of instructions through appropriate language d. working with large and mixed class e. organising activities in the classroom f. maintaining the discipline and control of the class g. use of resources h. management of time i. presentation skill of the teacher Teachers may have their own style of presentation though the above mentioned points will provide them guidelines to conduct their class efficiently. Experience shows that usually teachers tend to use Bangla for the whole class time on the ground that native language helps to understand the foreign language and lessons become easier for the students, it saves teachers’ time and energy as well. But once students get accustomed to listening to Bangla in English class, they will never be able to recognise the sounds of English and use English in their real life. Classroom is the only place that gives them opportunity to communicate in simple English. 139 Teaching English- 1 So, this is teachers’ responsibility to create a learning environment that gives enough exposure of English to the students. For the first few days teachers may have to struggle to combat the situation. Besides, teachers should be very careful in selection of language to be used in the class. The teachers should bear in mind the following: a. Before giving any activity try to demonstrate it. b. Repeat the instruction if you do not have their attention. c. Do not give the materials before instruction. d. Do not divide them into groups before giving any instruction. e. Holding students’ attention for long is difficult so try brief and clear instruction. f. While speaking in front of the students maintain normal speed. g. Explanations sometimes fail to appeal to the students, so try appropriate example. h. Encourage their question by asking, “Do you have any questions before you start?” i. If it is not fruitful flash back to your instruction and try to improve. Assessment of your learning: 1. What is your idea of classroom management ? Discuss the main issues of classroom management. 2. How can you make your students get accustomed to English instructions in the class ? 140 Secondary Teachers Training Probable Answers Section A: Meaning of Classroom Management Activity Most important activities to manage a class according to me: 1. Teachers need to know how a class can be handled efficiently. 2. Classroom management is firstly related to physical learning environment. 3. Secondly it is related to the establishment of relationship among students and between students and the teacher. 4. Use of appropriate language in classroom instructions. 5. Maintaining discipline in the classroom. Section B : The use of Language in class Activity Use of language in classroom. Pros: I support use of English. If English is used, it encourages students to speak English. Reason: Our students’ speaking skill is very low. They need to practise speaking. I support: Students get exposure to new vocabulary. Reason: Vocabulary is very much essential for speaking English. Cons: I support: It may reduce novice teachers’ level of confidence. Reason: Novice teachers usually feel shy to speak in English. I support: Students may get confused and fail to follow the instructions. Reason: Novice teachers’ selection of words may confuse the students. 141 Teaching English- 1 Section A: Giving Instructions in English Activity 1 1. Open. 2. Sit. 3. Go/Come. 4. Close. 5. Go. 6. Take. Activity 2 Instructions on Lesson 14, Unit 1, EfT 7 Open at page 18 (section A) Look at the picture and talk about the picture with your partner. Section B Read the following sentences and decide whether true or false. If false, give correct answer. Section C Work in pairs. Discuss with your partner and try to answer the questions. 142 Secondary Teachers Training Session 16 Introduction to Micro teaching Introduction This session focuses on the idea of micro-teaching. It will also give you the idea why this session is included in your module. In addition to that this session will highlight the idea how you can practise micro-teaching (if required) and build up your confidence as an English language teacher. Objectives At the end of this session you will be able to explain the importance of micro teaching analyse the roles of both trainer and trainees identify the ground rules of Micro teaching differentiate between Micro teaching and Teaching Practice Section A Introduction to MT MT kind of teaching lesson divided into sections after practice other particiants analyse sometimes colleagues provide feedback This is one kind of teaching practice that learners go through during their courses in education or during their professional training work shops. In micro teaching practice we divide a lesson into various sections highlighting different skills and techniques. As this practice is done in front of other participants this gives them chances to critically analyse each section of their presentation. In advanced countries the whole practice session is recorded or videoed so that the presenter him/herself can critique his/her own presentation skill. Sometimes it is done in front of colleagues who provide feedback to the presenter and the presenter gets chances to repeat the process. The skills that can be practised in micro teaching are: 143 Teaching English- 1 a. introducing a lesson b. using voice and gesture c. effective questioning d. demonstration e. using aids f. stimulus variation g. closing the lesson h. writing instructional objectives i. sequencing and organising knowledge to be presented in order to achieve instructional objectives j. observing and evaluating lessons Activity: Suppose you are teaching modal verbs. Think of an appropriate aid and prepare it. Section B Trainer and Trainee roles MT team trainees act as students, 2/3 trainees observer trainer/supervisor concucts provides beedback In the previous section you have got the idea of microteaching. Now let us have a look at the different roles that are important in a micro-teaching session. As you know that micro-teaching is practice session, in training programs usually the trainees practise this. Now see these roles that are involved in microteaching : a) The microteaching team: divide a single lesson into various components and provide it to the group. b) The trainees: act as students of class 6—10 throughout the whole session and do not give any comment c) The observers: two or three selected trainees play this role. They observe the presentation and critique. 144 Secondary Teachers Training d) The teacher trainer/supervisor : conducts the whole process and provides feedback to the trainees at the end of the session. Activity: Here are some activities of a microteaching session in a jumbled order. First go through the activities and put them in order. Selection of lesson Trainee presents the lesson to the class The observer gives comment Finally, the whole class applauds the team! Trainees provide further comments The team spends time on preparation of lesson Teacher trainer sums up with constructive feedback to the presenters Selection of lesson the presenters are asked to reflect on their own presentation (both strong and weak points). Selection of observers Trainees are divided into groups of 4 or 5 The presenters are asked to critique their own teaching, (both merits demerits) The group decides who in their group will present which section. Section C Ground Rules for Microteaching You have already got some idea about microteaching in the previous section. Here you see what to do during the microteaching session. As you know that the lesson is divided according to various skills, so that the presenters can present a single skill at a time and all the members of a batch cooperate with each other, thus microteaching becomes effective. 145 Teaching English- 1 The Ground Rules Ground rules : start positive comments members co-operate with each other, suitable classroom, maintain time limit, receive possitive/negative comments The observer should start with positive comments, while speaking on negative points that should follow solutions as well. All the members should cooperate with each other. Every one should be prepared to present any skill. Suitable classroom environment is essential. Real students are welcome in microteaching session. The presenters should be careful to maintain time limit. The presenters should receive both positive and negative comments in an open mind. Everyone should try to learn from the sessions. Activity: Select one ground rule and think for 5 minutes then provide two comments in favour of or two comments against it. Section D Difference between MT and TP MT presented in controlled environment TP-real classroom MT done repeatedly TP-once only In microteaching the whole teaching session is divided into small sections and presented in a controlled environment. On the other hand teaching practice is done in real classroom. Microteaching focuses on some special skills or techniques and the practice is done again and again. But in teaching practice there is no repetition even though practising teachers can learn from the real life situation also. Microteaching helps to build up the confidence level of the trainee teachers. Activity: Write down two differences between MT & PT 146 Secondary Teachers Training Introduction to Microteaching Key Learning Points Microteaching is a kind of teaching that the trainee teachers practise during their training period. Microteaching practice helps trainees to develop new skills and refine old ones. A trainee teaches a small group of other trainees for five to ten minutes. Then the fellow trainees comment on the teaching. At the end the trainer/supervisor analyses the teaching and provides feedback. The original microteaching cycle developed at Stanford was as follows: PlanTeachCritiqueReplanReteachRecritique. Each cycle was devoted to the practice of one small technique for example, Introduction and closing of a lesson, question answer, demonstration, and use of teaching aids. Cycle of Microteaching Plan Critique Teach Reteach Replan Recritique You have got the ideas of ground rules and procedures of microteaching in previous sections. Now try to answer the following questions. 1. What idea did you form about microteaching from this section? 2. Why do trainees need to do microteaching in their training session? 147 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section A: Activity You can take a piece of poster paper or an old calendar (backside of this you can use). Suppose your lesson is introducing modal verbs. On the piece of paper you can make a chart of common modal verbs with examples, using the modals in sentences. You can use marker pen of colourful ink to make the teaching aid attractive one. Remember one thing the writing should be clear and big enough to be seen from the back of a large class. Section B: Activity The correct order may be like: 1. Trainees are divided into groups of 4 or 5. 2. Selection of observers. 3. Selection of lesson. 4. The group decides who in their group will present which section. 5. The team spends time on preparation of lesson. 6. Trainee presents the lesson to the class. 7. The presenters are asked to reflect on their own presentation (both strong and weak points). 8. The observer gives comment. 9. Trainees provide further comments. 10. Teacher trainer sums up with constructive feedback to the presenters. 11. Finally, the whole class applauds the team. 148 Secondary Teachers Training Section C: The presenter should receive both positive and negative comments in an open mind. Comments in favour: a) Positive points give encouragement to the presenters. b) Negative points help presenters to improve their presentation. Comments against: a) Positive points may provide the presenter over confidence. b) Negative points may dishearten the presenter. Section D Activity 1 Answers: 1. Warm up activity is excellent. 2. Presentation of vocabulary is interesting. 3. Classroom management is ok. 4. Time management should be taken care of. 5. Classroom should have been more interactive. 149 Teaching English- 1 Session 17 Demonstration Lesson 1 Introduction Demonstration lesson gives trainees opportunities to improve teaching skill, so from this session you will learn about demonstration lesson. It will acquaint you with different points of a lesson Objectives: At the end of this session you will be able to explain what a demonstration lesson is present a model lesson Section A Introduction to demonstration lesson DL good trainees present a good model use of books visual aids clear instructions Guiding questions PW, appreciate, silent reading, plenty of interaction Demonstration lesson is good for trainee teachers. They can form a clear idea from a demonstration class. This demonstration may be done by the fellow trainees or the trainer. Its aim is to present a good model in front of the trainee teachers. While presenting a lesson you have to be careful about the following points: Good use of books Visual aids clear instructions use of pictures Guiding question where appropriate Pair work at every opportunity Allowing pairs to compare answers before plenary sessions Provide encouragement Appreciate where necessary 150 Secondary Teachers Training Clear beginning of each section Organizing silent reading Plenty of interaction. Now at this stage you can reflect on the presentation of your different sections of the lesson. Following are some questions to help you to reflect. Could you identify main stages of the lesson? As a teacher what was your role? What were your students doing ? Was there anything unusual ? What was your feeling during the presentation? Would it be possible for you to present lesson at school? After presentation ask peer’s suggestion. 151 Teaching English- 1 Session 18 Curriculum Studies 1 Introduction In formal education, curriculum is the main thing, curriculum (plural curricula) is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow and mature in becoming adults. Curriculum means two things: (i) the range of courses from which students Curriculum, teaching, learning strategy, assessment choose what subject matters to study, and (ii) a specific learning program. In the latter case, the curriculum collectively describes the teaching, learning, and assessment materials available for a given course of study. Each country determines and establishes its own curriculum with great participation of national academic subject specialists, educationist and policy makers. Every teacher should understand and follow the curriculum to make teaching learning effective. In this session you will be introduced the key features of the secondary English curriculum. To study this session you need a copy of EfT at any level. Objectives By the end of the session you will be able to identify the key terminology used in the curriculum explore the key concepts of the curriculum document identify learner-centred activities in EfT 152 Secondary Teachers Training Section A Key terminology We have to study and understand the curriculum, the principle document, determining what is to be learnt and achieved, and by when. In order to begin we need to be familiar with the key terms. Let us check how far we are acquainted with the key terminology used in the curriculum. Do the activity given below. Key terminology in the curriculum Competencies, methods, values syllabus, supplementary materials, continuous, assessment, etc Look at the following terms in the left-hand column. Their definitions are on the right, but jumbled up. Can you match the terms to their definitions? Term 1. Aim Definition a. A structured breakdown of the subject into sequence, to aid in long-term lesson planning 2. Objective b. Additional items and objects which help classroom teaching, such as pictures, blackboards, TV, etc 3. Syllabus c. Additional teaching resources which complement what is in the main text book 4. Competencies d. The topics and themes covered in the syllabus 153 Teaching English- 1 5. Values a. Tests and exams which are set by individual schools, rather than at national level 6. Methods b. An overall target expressed in a general manner, intended to be achieved in the long term 7. Content c. The process of measuring students’ achievement during the term as well as through final exams 8. Teaching Aids d. The teaching approaches and techniques that are used to implement the syllabus 9. Supplementary e. Materials The abilities each student is expected to have after studying for a certain period 10. Continuous f. Assessment The social, cultural and moral ideas that the educational system aims to promote 11. Internal Examinations k. A particular target to support achieving an aim. This will be expressed in a specific manner, and is intended to be achieved in the short term After finishing this activity check your answers. 154 Secondary Teachers Training Section B Analysing key concepts in the curriculum Some key passages have been extracted from the curriculum document. They are followed by a few simple questions. Now read them and try to give their answers. Key concepts in the curriculum Text A The aim of this document is to provide a communicative syllabus for Communicative Approach, English is a a skill based subject, communicative materials, English as work oriented skill English should be taught in context, social values are to be taught the teaching and learning of English at Secondary and Higher Secondary levels in Bangladesh. As such, it aims to provide clear and comprehensive guidelines for textbook writers, teachers, students and all those who are concerned with the teaching and learning of English. In itself, however, a syllabus cannot ensure that communicative language teaching and learning takes place in the classroom. It can only provide a set of criteria which, if properly implemented, would give the best possible chance for that to happen. What is the role of the curriculum document in our teaching? What do you understand by a communicative syllabus? 155 Teaching English- 1 Text B This syllabus has been produced in order to bring about change, and in particular, a change of teaching methods. In order to implement change successfully, it is essential to understand that English is not like most of the other subjects specified on the curriculum. For, unlike them, English is not a content-based subject, but a skill-based subject. English is not about any particular topic, but rather, it is about practising something: listening, speaking, reading and writing. What do you understand by the term ‘skill-based subject’? Why is English considered to be such a subject? Text C For the successful implementation of this syllabus, many new things will be required. Chief among these are suitable communicative language materials that will enable teachers to reactivate their classes and appropriate examinations that will test language skills, not the ability to memorise the contents of textbooks, or, even worse, notebooks, without understanding. The changes that are required in order to bring about an improvement in the teaching and learning of English are radical and manifold and it will take time for these changes to be fully understood, accepted, absorbed and finally have their desired effect. What are the two main things required to implement the new syllabus? What do you understand by the term ‘reactivate their classes’? Why do you think the changes will take time? 156 Secondary Teachers Training Text D English needs to be recognised as an essential work-oriented skill that is needed if the employment, development and educational needs of the country are to be met successfully. Increased communicative competence in English, therefore, constitutes a vital skill for learners at this stage, whether they leave school to take up a vocation or continue their studies up to Higher Secondary level. English should, therefore, be taught as something to be used, rather than as something to be talked about. What does the curriculum suggest as the main aim of learning English in Bangladesh? What do you understand by ‘increased communicative competence?’ Why is it necessary for secondary learners? Text E The language syllabus seeks to realise the larger goals that are envisaged in the national educational system and reinforce the social, cultural and moral values of the country as a whole. Language is presented within contexts that are appropriate to the society and culture of Bangladesh and which embody its moral and spiritual values. For this purpose, traditional stories, fables and other materials which effectively put across a moral message are incorporated in the section where suitable topics and themes are specified. In this way, English is primarily introduced within contexts that are familiar to students as a language for their own self-expression. How are social, cultural and moral values related to language teaching and learning? Why should language be presented in the context of society and culture? 157 Teaching English- 1 Text F A communicative teaching and learning methods should contribute materially towards the realisation of values essential to the development of society within a learner-centred, as opposed to a teacher-centred, context. Where teachers and students work closely together, and where students work together in pairs and groups, a practical sense of cooperation, responsibility and independence is nurtured. In addition, a learner-centred approach to teaching and learning seeks to ensure that students are regularly engaged in practising English, rather than memorising without understanding the contents of textbooks in order to meet the demands of an inappropriate examination system. What is learner-centred teaching and learning? Why is leaner-centred teaching advocated in the curriculum? When you will have finished then compare your answers with the possible answers given at the end of this session. Section C Learner-centred activities (20 minutes) One of the most-important terms in the document is ‘learner-centred’, as this is really at the heart of the approach. Now turn to EfT (any level) and identify activities which support this learner-centred approach. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 158 Secondary Teachers Training Curriculum Studies 1 Key Learning Points The curriculum is the blueprint of an education system at any level. For understanding the curriculum document one should know the following terms clearly. Aim- An overall target expressed in a general manner, intended to be achieved in the long run. Objective- A particular target to support achieving an aim. This will be expressed in a specific manner and is intended to be achieved in the short term. Syllabus- A structured breakdown of the subject into a sequence, to aid in long-term lesson planning. Competencies- The abilities each student is expected to have after studying for a certain period. Values- The social, cultural and moral ideas that the social system aims to promote. Methods- The teaching approaches and techniques that are used to implement the syllabus. Content- The topics and themes covered in the syllabus. Teaching aids- Additional items and objects which help classroom teaching such as pictures, the blackboard, etc. Supplementary materials- Additional teaching resources which complement what is in the main textbook. Continuous assessment- The process of measuring achievement during the term as well as through final exams. 159 students' Teaching English- 1 Internal examinations- Tests and exams which are set by individual schools, rather than at a national level. Aim of teaching English at secondary level: The aim of the English Curriculum document is to provide a communicative syllabus for teaching and learning English at Junior Secondary, Secondary and Higher Secondary levels in Bangladesh. In itself, however, a syllabus cannot ensure that communicative language teaching and learning takes place in the classroom. It can only provide a set of criteria which, if properly implemented, would give the best possible chance for that to happen. The English language syllabus aims to focus on the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing as learner-centred activities within communicative contexts. This syllabus has been produced in order to bring about change and, in particular, a change of teaching methods. In order to implement the change successfully, it is essential to understand that English is not like most of the other subjects specified on the curriculum. For unlike them, English is not a content-based subject but a skill-based subject. For successful implementation of this syllabus many new things will be required. Chief among these are suitable communicative language materials that will enable teachers to reactivate their classes and appropriate examinations that will test language skills. The English language syllabus seeks to realize the larger goals that are envisaged in the national educational system and reinforce the social, cultural and moral values of the country as a whole. It aims to do it in two ways: Firstly, language is presented within contexts that are appropriate to the society and culture of Bangladesh and which embody its moral and spiritual values. Secondly, a communicative teaching and learning methods should contribute materially towards the realization of values essential to the 160 Secondary Teachers Training development of society within a learner-centred, as opposed to a teachercentred context. The communicative teaching and learning methods that lies at the heart of the English language syllabus should ensure that essential social values will be learned in the most effective way : not only by knowing about them, but through practising them. q Assessment of your learning: 1. What are the main aims of learning English in our country? 2. What are the key features of the communicative curriculum? 3. What are the main changes from the traditional curriculum? 4. As a teacher how you can implement the communicative syllabus? 161 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section A: Key terminology 1)f 2) k 3) a 4) i 5) j 6) h 7) d 8) b 9) c 10) g 11) e Section B: Key concepts of curriculum Text A By studying the curriculum document, a teacher can have a clear understanding of his/her overall goals in teaching a subject. She can also understand what is to be achieved at each particular level, and by what methods. A communicative syllabus is one which focuses on the skills of using the language rather than knowledge about the language. Text B A skill-based subject helps students develop their abilities to tackle certain tasks, rather than their theoretical knowledge. Of course, students need to be knowledgeable about grammar, but above all, they need to be able to use English in a variety of contexts. For this, they need more than simple information about the language. The main purpose of English is to communicate with others – not to analyse systems. So students need to be able to listen, speak, read and write the language, not just be able to identify or label parts of speech or tenses. Similarly, they need to be able to use the language in everyday situations, not just be able to complete transformation-type activities Text C Appropriate language learning materials, and appropriate examinations which test skills, not memory. This means that teachers need to make their students more active and engaged in learning, rather than allowing them to sit passively and absorb information from the teacher. 162 Secondary Teachers Training These changes will take time as they require changes in attitude, not just technique. Teachers are used to dominating the class, and to controlling all the information and activity. This approach offers more freedom and responsibility to the students, and may be difficult to accept for certain traditional teachers, who may be unsure of their roles in this new environment. Text D The main aims are practical rather than only academic. We need English to progress to higher education, but also for employment, travel, communication, IT and overall national development. Students need to be able to communicate in English, not just analyse it or do grammatical exercises. Increased communicative competence means greater ability to express themselves in speaking and writing and to understand spoken and written texts with greater ease. Text E These values are important for their all-round development. They are not only learning language skills while at school but also developing their readiness to enter society as responsible citizens. All subjects should reflect this and help students develop their social awareness and skills. Language is the key way in which we express ourselves in society. It involves co-operation, working together, cohesion and social skills. So it is an ideal subject through which we can communicate values. Text F In learner-centred teaching, learners are engaged in different activities through which they practise their language skills. It means the students doing more of the work and the teacher acting as a facilitator, rather than the teacher lecturing the students or doing all the talking him/herself. Unlike other subjects, language can only be improved through practice. You cannot learn to speak only by listening to others! Therefore, learner-centred teaching is required above all in this subject. 163 Teaching English- 1 Section C: Learner-centred activities Dialogue practice Ask and answer questions in pairs Information transfer activities Read and match/read and draw Re-ordering sentences Picture interpretation Making sentences from a list Listen and do Listen and draw, etc… 164 Secondary Teachers Training Session 19 Curriculum Studies 2 Introduction In the last session curriculum 1 we were acquainted with some key terms used in curriculum. In this session you will be introduced with the key features of the secondary English curriculum. Objectives By the end of the session you will be able to reflect on your own competencies in using English while teaching at secondary level explore the required competencies at secondary level consider the topics of the English course at secondary level explore the present position of English in the school curriculum Section A Reflection on own competencies Reflect on your own language competencies in English in terms of listening, speaking, reading and writing after the SSC exam. Write them below: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 165 Teaching English- 1 Section B Exploring competencies at secondary level Let us look at the Worksheet below, which shows the list of competencies which a learner should acquire by the end of the secondary level. Read the following competencies and put tick marks (√) in the skill Competencies, Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing column(s) to which you think each competency refers (to indicate whether this competency describes a listening, speaking, reading or writing skill). Key competencies in English at secondary level Competency L 1. To understand instructions and commands. 2. To write instructions, narratives, descriptions and informal letters. 3. To participate in conversations. 4. To give instructions and commands. 5. To understand written instructions, narrative texts, descriptive texts, informal letters, simple authentic texts taken from newspapers and brochures, dialogues and sample poems. 6. To use simple written reference sources such as indexes, table of contents and dictionaries. 7. Describe people, objects etc. 8. To distinguish the different sounds of English and recognise intonation patterns of statements and questions within appropriate communicative contexts. 9. To recite simple poetry with 166 S R W Secondary Teachers Training understanding. 10. To speak intelligibly in clear correct English appropriate to the situation. 11. To use different punctuation and graphological devices appropriately. 12. To use cohesive devices such as linking words and reference words appropriately. 13. To read extensively with appropriate speed. 14. To recognise the functions of different punctuation and graphological devices. 15. To listen to a simple passage for gist, for specific information, taking simple notes and dictation. 16. To understand texts of varied types: narrative, descriptive and simple poems. 17. To recount a series of events. 18. To look up words in dictionaries. 19. To infer the meaning of words from contexts. 20. To continue extensive reading using supplementary readers. 167 Teaching English- 1 Section C Introducing the overall contents of the English curriculum Let us see the following outline of contents at secondary level and list some of the topics covered in English at the secondary level and think about the reasons for the inclusion of these topics and write them. Structures, topics or themes from everyday life. Structures Topics/Themes Vocabulary Poetry Dialogues and Drama --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section D English in the school curriculum More time alloted for English lesson, challenges of using Communicative Approach Now think about some basic features of English in the school curriculum.The following questions will guide you to think and write the answers. How many hours each week does each class (from 6-10) spend learning English? How are these hours usually divided up in the class routine? What are the main problems faced by teachers in implementing the curriculum? Can you think of any ways to work on these problems? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 168 Secondary Teachers Training Curriculum Studies 2 Key Learning Points The purpose of introducing English at the secondary level is to enable the students to use English at the desired level. It is expected that after passing the secondary level, their language foundation would help them to take higher education and communicate with others according to their needs. Not only that, even the dropouts of the secondary level can use English as a tool for communication at a considerable level. According to the set goals, the competencies of learning English are described in the secondary English curriculum. The English textbooks for this level are written according to those competencies. In these books, functional or operational English has been used. If we examine ‘English for Today’, we can find that the topics are chosen mostly from our everyday life and experiences such as our family, home, school, games, health, food habit, local trade and business, profession, etc and those reflect our own moral and social values. That would make students feel easy and be confident in using English in their own rural and urban situations as well as in a foreign situation. Content: The overall contents of EfT include topics/themes, structures, vocabulary, poems, dialogues and drama. These are organized according to grade levels and the competencies are specified for them. So while teaching English a teacher must know about the aims and objectives of curriculum and the competencies that are to be developed among the learners. S/he must use Communicative Approach in classrooms, otherwise the target of the curriculum can not be fulfilled. Features of English: Some basic features of English in the school curriculum are discussed below. According to the Report of the Curriculum and Syllabus Committee 1998, English is allocated 6 periods per week in 169 Teaching English- 1 classes 6-8 and 7 periods per week in classes 9-10. But in reality, most schools allocate more periods for English because they think that as a foreign language, English needs more time, greater care and attention. Allocation of English in the class routine depends on individual school authorities. To implement the curriculum based on the Communicative Approach, teachers face many problems. Some identified main problems are: Class size Mixed ability classes The importance is given to exams over learning Students’ eagerness to learn content rather than skills Unavailability of Teachers’ Guides Non- cooperation from colleagues and school authorities. How we can achieve the aim: Teachers should be properly trained in managing large and mixed ability classes. Short training, seminars and workshops can be arranged for the head teachers and School Management Committee members to change their views. Our govt. has started to organize this sort of training through different projects. If examinations more closely reflect the aims and objectives of syllabus, students would learn language skills in order to pass them. A clearer understanding of the aims and objectives of learning English will help students and teachers to see that memorising the textbook content is a waste of time. If teachers adopt more communicative 170 Secondary Teachers Training methods of teaching and if exams are reformed, effective learning of language skills will result. An English teacher should be aware of Teachers’ Guides. If s/he does not have any s/he can collect them from nearby school and can make photocopies of them. It is a part of a teacher’s job to talk to other colleagues, both senior and junior about Communicative Approach and its usefulness to help change their views. Though a change is not possible overnight but s/he should try. S/he can invite others to observe her/his class and if s/he is successful in her/his own teaching others will be motivated. Assessment of your learning 1. Why should a language teacher know the curriculum and how s/he can make effective use of the curriculum? 2. What problems a teacher may face in implementing the curriculum and how can these be solved? Probable Answers Reflection on own competencies Your answers may vary from, but some of the main competencies may have been: To understand and give instructions and commands To participate in everyday conversation To understand everyday written communication To read and listen to basic texts with overall understanding To write narratives To write descriptive essays To write formal and informal letters etc. 171 Teaching English- 1 Section B: Key Competencies in English Competency 1. To L understand S R W and √ instructions commands 2. To write instructions, √ narratives, descriptions and informal letters √ 3. To participate in conversations 4. To give instructions and commands. 5. To understand narrative written texts, √ √ √ instructions, descriptive √ texts, informal letters, simple authentic texts taken from newspapers and brochures, dialogues and sample poems 6. To use simple written √ reference sources such as indexes, table of contents and dictionaries √ 7. Describe people, objects etc 8. To distinguish the different sounds of √ English and recognise √ intonation patterns of statements and questions within appropriate communicative contexts. 9. To recite simple poetry with √ understanding 10. To speak intelligibly in clear correct √ √ English appropriate to the situation 11. and √ To use cohesive devices such as linking √ To use different punctuation graphological devices appropriately 12. 172 Secondary Teachers Training Competency words and L reference S R W words appropriately. 13. √ To read extensively with appropriate speed 14. √ To recognise the functions of different punctuation and graphological devices 15. To listen to a simple passage for gist, √ for specific information, taking simple notes and dictation 16. To understand texts of varied types: √ narrative, descriptive and √ simple poems. √ 17. To recount a series of events 18. To look up words in dictionaries √ 19. To infer the meaning of words from √ √ contexts 20. To continue extensive reading using √ supplementary readers Section C: Selecting the topics There are many possible topics in each unit, but all are drawn from everyday life and experience of the students Section C: Reasons for inclusion of the topics They have general educational values. They are everyday topics and therefore need to be covered if we want to communicate in a language. 173 Teaching English- 1 They are topics which are familiar to the students from their own experience. They appeal to the students of this age group. They are appropriate for students in both rural and urban settings. They have social and moral values. They provide realistic situations and contexts for language use. Section D: English in the school curriculum a. According to the Report of the National Curriculum and Syllabus Committee, 1995, English is allocated 6 periods per week in classes 6-8 and 7 periods per week in classes 9 and 10. But in reality, most schools allocate more periods for English because they think that as a foreign language, English needs more time, greater care and attention. b. Allocation of English in the class routine depends on individual school authorities. c. The main problems are: Class size Mixed ability classes The importance is given to exams over learning Students’ eagerness to learn content rather than skills Unavailability of TGs Non-cooperation from colleagues and school authorities d. Here are the answers in order: For answers to the first two of these problems, elicit some of the findings from the second session on Class Management. If the examinations more closely reflect the aims and objectives of the English syllabus, students would learn language skills in order to 174 Secondary Teachers Training pass them, and the time spent working for the exam would not be wasted. A clearer understanding of the aims and objectives of learning English will help the students and teachers to see that memorizing textbook contents is a waste of time. If teachers adopt more Communicative Approach of teaching and if exams are reformed, effective learning of language skills will result. TGs can be collected from nearby schools or from Principals, and photocopies can be made. It is a part of our work to speak to colleagues, both senior and junior, and speak to them about Communicative Approach in order to help change attitudes. Remember that this cannot be done in a single day. It takes time to change. If you are successful in your own teaching, others will be motivated to follow your way. 175 Teaching English- 1 Session 20 Curriculum Studies 3 Introduction In this session you will explore more key features of the secondary English curriculum. For this you need a copy of EfT class 9-10 Objectives By the end of the lesson you will be able to explore the competencies used in EfT explore the methods implied in the curriculum identify the communicative features of EfT Section A Exploring competencies from EfT Expected learners competencies i.e participate in conversation Think about the major competencies which learners should acquire at secondary level. Now find the activities from the lessons of unit 1 of EfT 910 corresponding to each competency. The worksheet is given below and one example is done for you. 176 Secondary Teachers Training Competencies Reflected in EfT Competency EfT 9-10 Lessons 1. To participate in conversation Lesson 1 Section C 2. To understand and write an article 3. To listen for specific information 4. To write informal letters 5. To read extensively with appropriate speed 6. To understand a narrative text 7. To express opinions clearly and logically 8. To demonstrate imagination and creativity in appropriate written form 9. To tell narrative and descriptive stories 10. To understand written instructions After completing the task compare your answers with the answers given at the back 177 Teaching English- 1 Section B: Methods implied in the curriculum Teachers should follow methods, many teachers do not understand method, teachers required to help learners to acquire competencies In teaching English teachers need to follow the methods as mentioned in the curriculum but this is unfortunate that many teachers do not have adequate understanding of the Methods; the curriculum requires in order to help learners to acquire these competencies. Look at a number of statements given below and decide if you agree or disagree with them and put tick mark either the Agree or the Disagree columns and write the reasons for that. Though many of the points raised here have been addressed in the other sessions– but this is a chance for you to express your responses in your own words. Methods implied in EfT (curriculum) Statement Agree a) Students should spend more time talking than the teacher. b) Students should be required to read the passages in the text books aloud. c) The teacher should help, praise and encourage the students. d) The teacher should try to present new language items (structures and vocabulary) in the mother tongue. 178 Disagree Secondary Teachers Training e) The instructions that the teacher gives to the students should be in English. f) Teachers should pay attention even to very small points of grammatical accuracy. g) Doing pair work is a waste of valuable class time in language learning. h) Each lesson should contain a variety of activities and skills with maximum students’ involvement. i) Students’ written work should be kept neat and tidy, and should be regularly checked by the teacher. j) It is impossible to do pair work in the traditional classroom, with fixed benches. k) During pair work, the teacher should stand in front of the class. l) Practice is essential for learning a language. m) A successful language teacher will have a close personal rapport with his/her students. n) Students learn more through individual learning than through co-operative learning. 179 Teaching English- 1 Reasons: a) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ b) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ c) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ d) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ e) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ f) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ g) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ h) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ i) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ j) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ k) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ l) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ m) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ n) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ o) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Section C Identifying communicative features in EfT Talk about the picture, pair work, listen and answer Explore the communicative features in EfT, which are related to the teaching methodology. Analyse some EfT lessons in terms of their basic components and the rationale behind each, so that you perceive the link between the methods in the curriculum and the activities in the book. The following features of EfT Class 9-10 Unit 1 reflect a broadly Communicative Approach. Can you identify the communicative purpose of each activity? Write them in the right-hand column. 180 Secondary Teachers Training Key features of EfT lessons EfT Lesson EfT (9-10) Unit 1 Lesson 1 EfT (9-10) Unit 1 Lesson 2 EfT (9-10) Unit 1 Lesson 3 EfT (9-10) Unit 1 Lesson 4 Key features Picture interpretation Pair work Dialogue practice Table of contents Ask and answer questions Listen to a short conversation Write informal letters Read a narrative text Make a list Write a narrative text Make a poster Guess the meanings Purpose After finishing the activity compare your answers with the answers given in the back of the session. Now identify more communicative features from other lessons of EfT for different classes. 181 Teaching English- 1 Curriculum Studies 3 Key Learning Points English Competencies: English is introduced in our secondary curriculum to be taught and learnt as a skill-based subject not a contentbased subject. To achieve this goal our teacher should use proper methods. The curriculum prescribes the Communicative Approach and the techniques that support this. Bangladesh is a monolingual country. Students get hardly any chance to use English outside the classroom. So the teacher should create an English environment in the classroom and make students confident of using English both in and outside the classroom. Our language learning materials are prepared for this purpose. If students do not get any exposure to English and can not get any chance to speak English, they will not acquire the competencies of using English. A competent language user should be able to use all the skills, not reading and writing skills only. We should remember that language is primarily spoken. Many teachers in Bangladesh use Grammar-Translation Method and give importance to accuracy. This inhibits the students from using language because constant correction for every single mistake makes students discouraged. Translation may be a technique for presenting vocabulary rather than practising a skill. If translation is constantly used, students can not become accustomed to the sounds of the language. Students should have enough opportunity to speak in the classroom that will help them develop their fluency. The teacher’s role is to facilitate their learning. Though accuracy is an important part of mastering a language, it can only be developed through practice. English teachers in Bangladesh should be properly trained in using the Communicative Approach in the classroom. Students need to be involved in the varied activities of the 182 Secondary Teachers Training lessons. Language can not be simply learnt by heart in a vacuum. It is a cooperative phenomenon. So learners need to practise it with others, to speak and listen to them. Assessment of your learning Why should English teacher follow the Communicative Approach in teaching English for Today in the classoom? 183 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section A: Competencies in EfT Competency 1. To participate in conversation 2. To understand and write an article 3. To listen for specific information 4. 5. To write informal letters To read extensively with appropriate speed To understand a narrative text 6. 7. EfT 9-10 Lessons Lesson 1 Section C Lesson 1 Section E Lesson 4 Sections A, C Lesson 2 Sections C, D Lesson 2 Section F Lesson 3 Section C Lesson 4 Section A Lesson 3 Section C Lesson 4 Section A Lesson 1 Section A Lesson 4 Sections B, C Lesson 1 Section D Lesson 2 Section F To express opinions clearly and logically 8. To demonstrate imagination and creativity in appropriate written form 9. To tell narrative and descriptive Lesson 4 section B stories 10. To understand written instructions All instructions within the lessons Section B: Methods implied in Eft (Curriculum) a. Obviously. If students get enough chance to speak in the classroom, it will help them develop their confidence and their fluency. The teacher’s role is to facilitate this and support them. The teacher already knows English! b. For many teachers, reading means reading aloud. However, this does not necessarily help us in understanding a text. Silent reading is more useful in helping a learner understand a text and gradually building up their ability to read quickly c. Teachers should remember that language learning depends a great deal on confidence. This can be created, but also damaged by the 184 Secondary Teachers Training teacher. Helping learners to become more confident is a great responsibility of the teachers. So they need to be careful the way they respond to learners’ efforts not to discourage them. They have to praise and encourage them. d. No, although the mother tongue can play an important role, there needs to be plenty of exposure as well to the target language, otherwise learners will become dependent on translation and unable to function confidently in a spontaneous target language situation. e. Yes. Though translation can sometimes be useful in presenting vocabulary, the teacher should make every effort to expose his/her students to English, so that they become accustomed to the sounds of the language. f. While accuracy is clearly an important part of mastering a language, it can only be developed through practice. And it can only flourish when the student feels confident. If teacher corrects every single mistake, students can become discouraged. g. Pair work is a vital means of giving all students practice in large classes. Rather than being a waste of time, it is an effective use of limited time. h. Lessons should be varied – and following EfT can help ensure this. Students need to be involved, and asking many questions, pair activities, pictures etc can help this. i. Yes, students’ written work should be neat and tidy so that it provides a good foundation for later revision. One of the duties of a teacher is to monitor the condition of each student’s exercise book. j. The benches may be fixed, but the students are not! As long as teachers introduce pair work gradually, students can learn to be flexible and move in their seats. 185 Teaching English- 1 k. The teacher should move around the room to monitor what is going on in pair activities, and therefore be able to help the students during the activity. l. Yes, practice is essential. Just like riding a bike, the only way to learn is by doing! m. A teacher needs to develop a good relationship with students in all subjects, but especially in language learning which depends so much on confidence, the rapport is very essential. n. Language is a co-operative phenomenon. It can not be simply learnt by heart in a vacuum. Teachers need to practise it with others, speak and listen to them. Section C: Identifying communicative features in EfT EfT Lesson Unit 1 Lesson 1 Key features Picture interpretation Purpose To practise freer speaking Pair work To practise pronunciation and to give controlled practice Dialogue practice To practise asking questions Unit 1 Lesson 2 Table of contents Ask and answer questions To provide speaking practice To develop listening skill Unit 1 Lesson 3 Listen to a short conversation To develop writing skill Write informal letters Read a narrative text To develop reading skill Make a list To check understanding a text either from reading or 186 Secondary Teachers Training EfT Lesson Key features Purpose listening to a speech Write a narrative text Unit 1 Lesson 4 To develop writing skill To stretch the imagination and develop writing skill Make a poster Guess the meaning To develop reading and vocabulary skill 187 Teaching English- 1 Session 21 Teaching Listening 2 Introduction Language is the means of communication. Without listening no one can take part in communication. In teaching English teacher should be very careful about developing listening skill of the learners. Generally teachers do not practise listening tasks in classrooms Though there are some challenges in teaching listening but a teacher can overcome the challenges and make teaching effective if s/he is aware of them. The purpose of this session is to enhance your knowledge of the key principles of teaching listening. To read the session you need a copy of EfT Class 7. Objectives: By the end of the session you will be able to explore teachers’ attitudes to teaching listening analyse a listening lesson from EfT consider the typical problems and solutions that students face when listening in English Section A Exploring attitudes to teaching listening In this section you are going to explore in more detail the issues involved in teaching listening. Many teachers do not think they need to do listening practice with their students. Look at a number of typical attitudes. They are all about teaching listening. Read the following statements. If you agree with a statement, tick the ‘I agree’ box on the right. If you disagree, tick the ‘I disagree’ box. And write the reasons for your answers. 188 Secondary Teachers Training Attitudes to Teaching Listening Statement I agree 1. When we listen it is not necessary to understand every word to understand the message. 2. It is not possible to do listening practice in class without a tape recorder and an audio cassette. 3. We cannot do listening practice in class because the students' English is too weak. 4. I don't give instructions in English because my students don't understand me. 5. We can learn new words by listening to English. 6. It is a waste of time practising listening as students do not have a listening exam. 7. The teacher should read a listening passage aloud only once. 8. Students can usually understand more than they can say. 9. 9) Listening is an important part of conversation. 189 I disagree Teaching English- 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After finishing the activity check your answers with the answers given at the end of the session Section B A listening lesson analysis Let us read a narrative text to understand how a teacher teaches a listening lesson from EfT, Class7, Unit 1, Lesson 15, Section B and analyse the lesson using the grids given below. Make short notes in each column according to what happened in the lesson. T: Good morning. How are you? Ss: Fine, Thank you. T: What do you see? (Show a map of Bangladesh hanging on the wall) Ss: A map of Bangladesh. T: Who can show the spots of Chittagong, Sylhet, Dhaka in the map? Ss: Here they are. (One student shows the places) 190 Secondary Teachers Training T: Do you like to travel in Bangladesh? Ss: Yes we do. T: To day our lesson is "Travelling in Bangladesh" (T writes it on the board). Write it on your exercise book. T: In this lesson you will get some new words. I'm telling you their meaning. Write them in your notebook (T teaches the new words using the proper steps for presentation) travel, following, including T: Now Ss look at the questions given in the lesson and read them. I'll read the text aloud and you have to listen to me very carefully to give the answers. (Teacher reads the text) T: Ss I'm reading the text again for you to help you find the answers. T: Check your answers with your partners. (Ss check their answers in pairs) T: As you have checked the answers now who will give the answers, please raise your hands. Q1- Who travelled in Bangladesh? Q2- How did they travel? Q3: Where did they go? T: Good, you have done well. Now I'm reading the lesson again and complete the information given in section B. (Ss complete the table.) T: Who will read the table? (One student reads the passage.) T: Do you know the meaning of the following words (T checks the vocabulary for gap filling) strange, diary, transport ,tired, relatives, journey (Teacher clarifies the meaning of them) T: Complete the passage using the given words. (Ss complete the passage) T: Who will read the passage? (One student reads the passage and the others compare their answers) 191 Teaching English- 1 T: Thank you, who haven't yet completed please complete it. (Teacher reads the corrected form if necessary.) T: That’s the end of the lesson. Goodbye. Fill in the following grid with your own suggestions for what happened during the lesson. Stages What the teacher What the students did did Pre listening While listening 192 Purpose Secondary Teachers Training Post listening When you will have completed the grid then check your answers with the answers given the back of the session Section C Problems students have with listening In our country students have some common problems while listening English. Look at following grid which lists the problems that students face when trying to listen in English. Now try to match the suggested solutions on the right (which are mixed up) with the appropriate problems on the left. 193 Teaching English- 1 Problems Students Face While Listening to English Problems 1) Students try to understand every word they hear. Solutions a) To get students’ interest in a topic you have to set the scene through pictures, questions, etc. This also helps to prepare them for what they are going to listen to and increases their motivation. b) It is better to teach a few important vocabulary items before listening so that students can complete their tasks. 2) Students can’t concentrate for long periods of time when they listen. 3) Students are not c) There is no limit on how many times you interested in the topic read the text. If the students need to hear it and ‘switch off.’ two or three times then this is fine. It’s for skills development, not a test! 4) Students don’t d) If the text is long, break it into sections understand some with a pause between so that students have important vocabulary. a chance to think and check their answers with their partner. 5) Students can’t catch e) Students need tasks when they listen. all the information after Listening without responding is useless and one reading of the text. difficult for students to do as they have no focus. 6) Students don’t think f) It’s not necessary to understand every listening is an word! Getting the important information is important skill to usually enough. develop. 7) Students only listen g) There is no need to memorise a listening to a text and do not text. The purpose of listening practice is to respond in any way. develop students’ skills, not learn information. 8) Students listen to a text and then are not able to memorise what they have heard. h) Students need to understand the importance of listening as part of their ability to communicate. Speaking without listening means communication cannot take place. 194 Secondary Teachers Training Teaching Listening 2 Key Learning Points In real life situations, we speak or give information to other people when they want to know something, or to get information from them. Thus, we have ‘communication needs’. This communication does not take place if the listener cannot understand the speech in order to respond. In our context secondary English teachers play a vital role in developing the language skills of their students. English is a foreign language here and students do not get much opportunity to listen to English outside the classroom. So the classroom is the place where the teacher can introduce a variety of activities to develop listening skill of the learners. The teaching of listening skill should be organised very carefully. The methodical steps that a teacher should follow are Pre-listening, Whilelistening, and Post-listening. Pre-Listening At this stage teacher should ‘set the scene,’ using different techniques, i.e. showing pictures, asking questions, or give them some tasks, etc to introduce the topic. The purpose of this stage is to motivate the students and arouse their interest in the topic. Here the teacher should not say too much about the topic, otherwise students will lose their interest to listen. Then s/he should present some key vocabulary that they are not familiar with. The teacher should explain the task clearly what students have to do while listening. 195 Teaching English- 1 While-Listening At the while-listening stage, the teacher should read the text aloud to the students once, twice, or according to the students’ need. At this stage the teacher should read the text at a normal speed with a clear voice. The purpose of this stage is for students to make an effort to understand the text. Post-Listening After reading the text the teacher should elicit answers from the students and involve them in further practice. Problems of teaching listening and their remedies: The teaching of listening skill presents problems for both teachers and students, which are not found in teaching reading, the other receptive skill. The attitudes of both teachers and students may affect teaching listening also. The teacher may feel that without a record player or cassette, it is not possible for him/her to do any listening practice in class. However, this is not the only way to do this. The teacher can also read the listening text to students. Our secondary English textbooks (EfT) are written in such a way that a teacher can handle this very easily. While doing listening activities, the teacher may feel that students do not understand the instructions, or cannot practise listening due to their poor level of understanding of English. Besides, some teachers may feel that this is a waste of time because students do not have any listening exams. Students may also think that the listening skill is not an important skill to develop. So they are de-motivated and face difficulties while doing listening practice. However, teacher should motivate the students; s/he 196 Secondary Teachers Training should help them understand the importance of listening skill as a part of their ability to communicate. Some teachers may feel that they should read the text once only. Generally students cannot catch all the information after one reading of the text. As this is not to test students’ listening skills but to develop their listening skill, so there is no real limit how many times a teacher should read the text. S/he can read the text two or three or more times according to the need of the students. Sometimes students try to understand every word they hear and try to memorise the text. Before doing a listening activity, the teacher should explain that getting the important information or general understanding of the text is usually enough. The purpose of this activity is not to practise sentence construction and writing. So it is not necessary to understand every word and memorise the text. If the teacher reads a text which is too long, the students may lose their interest and cannot concentrate for a long period of time when they listen. To keep students’ concentration on the text the teacher should break this long text into different sections with a pause between so that students have a chance to think and check their answers with their partners. Therefore, the teacher’s role is important here as someone who can use a variety of activities to help students acquire the listening skills. 197 Teaching English- 1 Assessment of your learning: 1. As a language teacher what are the things that you should keep in mind while following the methodical steps in teaching listening? 2. How would you deal with the problems that arise in organising a listening activity? Answers of are section A: 3. What the different attitudes of teachers in teaching listening that you disagree with and why? 198 Secondary Teachers Training Probable Answers Section A: Attitudes to Teaching Listening 1) When we listen, it is not necessary to understand every word to understand the message. In every sentence there are some key words which carry all the meaning. If we understand these, then understanding every word in the sentence is not so important. This is called understanding the ‘gist’. 2) It is not possible to do listening practice in class without a tape recorder and an audio cassette. The teacher must be the resource for listening practices of his/her students. If the teacher does not feel confident of speaking English spontaneously – she can read from notes or texts. 3) We cannot do listening practice in class because the students’ English is too weak. You have to start somewhere. Begin with easy texts and tasks and build up their confidence. Their listening is probably stronger than their speaking. 4) I can't give instructions in English because my students don't understand me. Not yet maybe but they will with practice. They need the listening practice and it will help them listen and understand your instructions in English. 5) We can acquire new words by listening to English. Hearing words in context is a great way to pick up new words. You learn pronunciation at the same time as meaning and usage. 199 Teaching English- 1 6) It is a waste of time practising listening in class as students do not have a listening exam. Don’t you want them to be able to use English throughout their lives, outside class? Listening exams will probably be introduced so start preparing them now. 7) The teacher should read the listening passage only once. Why? Help the students by reading it several times. Make sure they have a focus and a reason to listen each time though. 8) SS can usually understand more than they can say Yes – usually. Give them a chance. 9) Listening is an important part of conversation Conversation is two-way. Without listening you have a monologue, not a conversation. Section B: A listening lesson analysis – Completed Grid Stages What the What the teacher did students did Purpose Section A Set the scene Gave their ideas To activate students’ by showing imagination, to the map arouse their Wrote the topic in Pre listening Presented the their notebook key To inform students of the day’s lesson topic Taught some interest, Tried to To make sure understand new students knew words and wrote sufficient words to down 200 understand the text Secondary Teachers Training Stages Pre What the What the teacher did students did vocabulary well listening Read and thought To give students a about the focus and reason questions for listening Told students To do the work to read the properly guiding questions Purpose Listened attentively Gave instructions for the task While Read passage Listened for To help them to listening aloud (first answers to the find the answers to time) questions the guiding questions To gain a deeper Section B Read the passage aloud (second Listened and understanding of completed the the text information in the table time) Post Elicited Checked answers To clarify how listening answers to with a partner much students 201 Teaching English- 1 Stages What the What the teacher did students did the guiding questions Purpose have understood Gave answers to the teacher To make sure students have the same answers. To check understanding To provide further vocabulary practice. To provide writing Section C Students used the practice. Ask students given words to to fill in the complete the gaps in the passage passage Section C: Problems Students have with Listening 1) f 2) d 3) a 4) b 5) c 6) h 7) e 8) g 202 Secondary Teachers Training Session 22 Teaching Listening 3 Introduction As a language teacher you have become acquainted with the methods to be used in teaching listening. In this session you will learn about the different types of listening tasks and can set listening tasks by yourself. The purpose of this session is to enhance your knowledge of the key principles of teaching listening and make you confident about teaching listening in class. To read the session you need copies of EfT Class 6, 7, 8, 9-10. Objectives: By the end of the session you will be able to analyse a lesson in teaching listening explore the range of listening tasks in EfT identify different types of listening tasks prepare a range of appropriate tasks for listening activities Section A Brief Overview of Teaching Listening After teaching a teacher reflects his/her own teaching. Read the following statements that a teacher did during teaching. Write the sequence in which these activities usually take place. The first one is done for you. 203 Teaching English- 1 Reflection on a teaching lesson Activity 1 Activity Sequence 5 1) I read the passage aloud 2) I checked answers 3) I asked Ss to look at the title and guess the story outline 4) I set a gap-fill activity to check understanding 5) I read the passage again 6) I checked the students’ answers 7) I asked the students to check in pairs 8) I asked the students to look at the pictures 9) I pre-taught some key new words 10) I set comprehension questions 11) I wrote guiding/focus questions on the BB 12) I set homework 13) I asked students to check the questions with a partner Finally, add the number of each activity to the table below according to whether it is a pre-, while- or post-listening activity. The first one is done for you 204 Secondary Teachers Training Activity 2 Pre-listening While-listening Post-listening 3 Reminder for: Pre, While and Post… Remember that in listening and reading skills activities, we have talked about three stages. Here is another way of understanding them: The pre-listening task is usually a kind of scene-setting. It helps the Ss prepare mentally for what is coming. It does not need to refer to the text itself – but should be on the same topic as the text, so as to help students get ready for the text. A typical example is a picture which shows what is happening in the story they are going to read/listen to. The while-listening tasks are usually one or two general and simple questions which help students focus while listening. Of course these questions must be given before they listen, but they can only be answered (mentally) while the students are actually listening to the text. These guiding questions are then answered immediately after listening to the text for the first time, before the post-listening tasks are completed. The post-listening tasks are given afterwards to consolidate understanding. They usually consist of more detailed questions or information transfer tasks. The students should read these tasks before listening the second or third time, so that they are once again given a focus. These post-listening tasks may well involve listening twice or three times to the text in order to complete. After finishing your activity check your answers. 205 Teaching English- 1 Section B Listening task types in EfT As you have learned the stages of a listening lesson and have the idea about guiding questions. You can teach listening lesson using different types of activities instead of guiding questions such as: Listen and decide: true or false Listen and predict Listen and draw Listen and do Now explore more listening tasks in EfT.Read the instructions and do it accordingly. Task Types in EfT Look at the following pages in EfT and make a note of the reading task that the students have to do. The first one has been done for you as an example. English for Today Task Type 1) EfT Class 6, Unit Three, Lesson 5A Listen & answer guiding questions and B 2) EfT Class 6, Unit Two, Lesson 7A and B 3) EfT Class 7, Unit One, Lesson 7B 4) EfT Class 7, Unit One, Lesson 15B 5) EfT Class 7, Unit Two, Lesson 7B 6) EfT Class 8, Unit Three, Lesson 4B 7) EfT Class 8, Unit Three, Lesson 8A and C 206 Secondary Teachers Training 8) EfT Class 9/10, Unit Two, Lesson 1D 9) EfT Class 9/10, Unit Two, Lesson 7B Analysis of a listening task Now open EfT Class 8, Unit 2, Lesson 11 A-C and answer the following questions : a. What is the reason for setting tasks in this sequence? b. What is the difference between pre- and post-listening questions? c. What is the role of section C? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section C Devising listening tasks A teacher should have a skill to set tasks for developing listening skill from any text. Now try to do the following activity. The purpose of this activity is to give you the skill to prepare listening tasks for any text, even one not found in the book. Sample text Read the following text and devise the following tasks. A pre-listening task Guiding questions for while-listening Post-listening tasks, including Listen and answer the questions Listen and complete a table Listen and fill in the gaps Listen and decide whether true or false. 207 Teaching English- 1 208 Secondary Teachers Training Stop Thief! One summer evening Mrs Mela went to the market to buy some fruit. She really enjoyed the smell of ripe fruit in the market and decided to buy a lot of different fruits for her family. She spent time talking to each of the shopkeepers, and choosing the best fruit. After some time she had 2kgs of yellow mangoes, 1kg of blackberries, 100 lychees, 2 green watermelons, and was still ready to buy more! Suddenly, a boy ran past and snatched her bag, containing all her money. The market was crowded and noisy, and the boy somehow managed to get away quickly. The boy, whose name was Pial, went to another market and bought a dozen oranges. He ate one – it was delicious! He took the rest to his house. When his mother saw the oranges she asked him where he had got them. At first Pial told a lie, saying that his friend had given them to him. But his mother did not believe him, and asked him again, but this time very sternly. Finally he confessed that he had stolen the money from a woman at the market. His mother scolded him and said: “Go back to the market, find the woman and give her back her bag and her oranges. And make sure you also say sorry!!” Pial did as his mother said. Luckily, he found the woman at the market gate. He apologised and gave her back the bag and oranges. The woman was astonished at his behaviour. She asked his name and advised him not to do the same again. “If you want to lead a good life, you need to work hard. Oranges taste much sweeter when you pay with your own money”. He looked sad when he heard her wise words, so she gave him four oranges and said “Take these and enjoy them”. The boy could say nothing. He took the oranges, but suddenly didn’t want to eat them – he was so moved. He gave the oranges to the first poor woman he met, who was surprised and happy at the good luck this day had brought her. 209 Teaching English- 1 Teaching Listening 3 Key Learning Points Content of listening: In order to help learners develop their listening skill, we must give them specific tasks; otherwise their listening will go unfocused. These tasks give them a purpose for listening. If we are teaching them pronunciation we can ask them to distinguish between sounds, e.g. Long and short vowel sounds or consonant sounds that are quite confusing for Bangla speakers. For vowel sounds we can give them minimal pairs of words like chip and cheap, fit and feet, lip and leap, etc. These words show the difference between short /I/ and long /I :/ sounds. Following Certain consonant sounds might be difficult for our learners. We can, therefore, ask them to identify these sounds as they appear in words. We can write the words on the board, number them and ask the students to listen and number the words as pronounced. This type of listening tasks may be called Listen and number, and Listen and do. This time we can ask the learners to listen to the text whether live or on tape and do or act accordingly. This activity would be good with instructional language, e.g. Pick up the piece of paper and throw it in the bin. Listen and write: We can dictate sentences and ask the students to write. Also we can describe a person which they would listen to carefully and then write a paragraph. Listen and draw: We can ask students to listen to instructions and descriptions and draw pictures. For example, Little Red Riding hood was wearing a red dress, a red hood and a pair of red shoes. Students can be asked to draw Little Red Riding hood. Listen and repeat: At the initial stage of listening students are asked to listen and repeat words and sentences. You can even try nursery 210 Secondary Teachers Training rhymes and songs for tongue exercise and fluency. We can use poems from the text book to teach them pronunciation, stress and intonation. Listen and predict: This sort of task is useful for story telling. Students listen to the story and predict what is going to happen next. Then they listen to the rest of the story. Listen and answer: The English textbook contains lots of passages and stories, which can be used for listening. To give the students a purpose for listening, you can discuss the situation and give them some guiding questions. As you read the text aloud students listen for the answers. Listen and decide: True or False. Students write T for true and F for false against the statements given. Listen and summarize: Students can be asked to listen to the text, a passage and summarize. These are some of the listening tasks students can be involved in. Assessment of your learning How can you organize your students for different listening tasks? 211 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section A: Activity 1, Reflection on a teaching lesson Activity Sequence 1. I read the passage aloud 5 2. I checked answers 6 3. I asked Ss to look at the title and 1 guess the story outline 4. I set a gap-fill activity to check 10 understanding 5. I read the passage again 8 6. I checked the students’ answers 11 7. I asked the students to check in 9 pairs 8. I asked the students to look at the 2 pictures 9. I pre-taught some key new words 3 10. I set comprehension questions 7 11. I wrote guiding/focus questions 4 on the BB 12. I set homework 12 13. I asked students to check the 9 questions with a partner 212 Secondary Teachers Training Section A: Activity 2, Arrange numbers as Pre, While and Post Pre-listening While-listening Post-listening 3, 8, 9 11, 1, 2, 5 4, 7, 6, 10, 13, 12 Answers of section B: Listening task types in EfT Listen and answer guiding questions Listen and complete a family tree Listen and answer the questions Listen and complete a table Listen and ask questions and answer them Listen and fill the gaps Listen and number Listen and describe Listen and choose Answers of Section C: Devising listening tasks a) Section A provides guiding questions whereas Section B asks detailed questions. b) The pre-listening questions should be simple and general, referring to the gist of the passages rather than to specific details. They provide a general reason for listening. Post-listening questions test Ss’ comprehension in more detail, and focus on the various ideas in the text, rather than the overall gist. c) To check comprehension and consolidate use of the grammar in the text. 213 Teaching English- 1 Listening task Ask Ss what they can buy in a market Show pictures of Mrs Mela and Pial and ask what is going to happen. Give some key words (e.g. thief, Mrs Mela, market, oranges, mother, sorry) and ask Ss to guess the content of the story. Guiding questions What happened to Mrs Mela’s bag? What were the feelings of the four people in the story? Post-listening tasks Listen and answer How many types of fruits did she buy? When did the boy snatch the bag? What did the boy do with the bag? What did his mother say? What did the woman do when he gave her back the bag? etc And… (See below) Listen and complete a table Type of fruit Quantity bought by Mrs Mela Listen and fill the gaps 1. One ______ evening Mrs Mela went to the market to buy some fruits. 2. She really enjoyed the smell of ____ fruit in the market 3. She spent time talking to each of the __________ 4. Suddenly, a boy ran past and snatched her ___, containing all her ____. 214 Secondary Teachers Training Listen and decide whether True or False Pial snatched Mrs Mela’s fruit. The mother ate the oranges and did nothing about the crime. Pial ate all the oranges on the way home. The woman was angry when Pial took her bag back. He gave the oranges to a poor woman. 215 Teaching English- 1 Session 23 Teaching Reading 2 Introduction Reading tasks; completing to table true false, comprehension questions, teacher adopts methods teachniques learners chance develop in, outside classroom three stages : prereading, while reading, post reading Our students read many things in and outside the classroom. But all these readings are not of the same type. The secondary English book EfT contains many types of reading tasks such as completing the table, true/false statements, comprehension questions, multiple-choice questions etc. To practise these different types of reading tasks, the teacher has to adapt various methods and techniques. Using different methods and techniques in the classroom helps the learners in thinking and finding out the learning outcomes to be achieved. In this approach, the learners have a great chance to contribute towards their own development in and outside the classroom. Besides, each type of reading has three stages to be done i.e. pre-reading, while reading and post-reading. In the prereading stage, the teacher gives some instructions about what the learners should do, the while-reading stage is the main part of reading task and the post-reading stage is actually the assessment of the reading task of the learners. However, this session focuses on the different types of reading tasks and on the three stages of a reading task. Objectives By the end of the session, you will be able to identify the different task types used in EfT explore the 3 stages of a reading lesson from EfT analyse the stages and purposes of each of them 216 Secondary Teachers Training Section A Reading tasks in EfT In Eft for class 6 to 9, integrated skill practice is done. In each lesson of all the units, varieties of reading tasks are included. Look at the following pages of EfT and make a note of the reading tasks that the students have to do. The first one is done for you as an example. English for Today Task Type 1) EfT Class 6, Unit One, Lesson 11 Complete the table 2) EfT Class 6, Unit Two, Lesson 12 3) EfT Class 7, Unit One, Lesson 18 4) EfT Class 7, Unit Four, Lesson 3 5) EfT Class 8, Unit Three, Lesson 7 6) EfT Class 8, Unit Three, Lesson 10 7) EfT Classes 9 &10, Unit Three, Lesson 3 8) EfT Classes 9 &10, Unit Nine, Lesson 4 217 Teaching English- 1 Section B Visualisation Teaching reading involves three stages: pre-reading, while reading and post-reading. The teachers, while teaching reading, should reflect these three stages. Now, visualize one of your favourite English teachers conducting English class while you were a student of class 7. He is teaching lesson 12, unit 2 “Giving Help”. Now think about– a) Has your teacher given any instruction before you start reading? b) What did s/he do while you were reading and doing the task? c) What did s/he do after finishing your reading? Section C Stages in a reading task: Each stage of reading task has specific purposes. In each stage, there are some activities to be performed by the teacher and the students to make the reading task fruitful. Look at the following stages of the reading lesson. Write some activities of the teacher and the students and also point out some purposes against each stage of reading task. 218 Secondary Teachers Training Stage Activity Purpose ● Pre-reading ● ● ● ● ● ● While-reading Post-reading ● ● 219 Teaching English- 1 Teaching Reading 2 Key Learning Points There are many types of reading tasks in EfT from 6 to 9. Reading doesn’t mean only to answer some comprehension questions. It includes many other interesting tasks with which student can be involved in reading activity with great enthusiasm. But it is the responsibility of the teacher to conduct the reading task in a proper way. However, the following are some of the reading tasks types stated from EfT. 1) Complete the table: After a reading text, there may be a table containing the heading in each column. Students complete the columns receiving information from the reading text. 2) Multiple choices: Students choose the best answer for each question. 3) TRUE/FALSE statements: There may be some statements based on the information of the reading text. Students decide whether the statements are true or false. Students may be asked to provide the correct answer if the statement is false. 4) Complete the statements: Students complete sentences using information from the reading text. the incomplete 5) Comprehension questions: A reading text may be followed by some comprehension questions, which the students answer reading the text. 6) Complete the paragraph: Students are asked to finish the incomplete paragraph based on the reading text. 7) Fill in the spidergram: Students are asked to provide various information from the reading text through mind mapping. 8) Tick the correct expression: Paragraph wise expressions are supplied and the students are asked to match expression with the relevant paragraph. 220 Secondary Teachers Training Stages of a reading task Like listening, reading task has also three stages. These are: A) Pre-reading, B) While-reading, C) Post-reading. A .Pre-reading This stage can be sub-divided into three sections: 1. Setting the scene 2. Giving guiding questions 3. Checking necessary vocabulary B. While-reading: During this stage students read the text silently and find answers to the tasks. The teacher monitors the class. C. Post reading: This is the last stage of reading task when the teacher checks answers to the tasks. If there is any serious confusion, the teacher can explain it and give solutions. Assessment of your learning Answer the following questions briefly: Why is it necessary to follow 3 stages for teaching reading in the classroom? Among the different reading task types, which one is more comfortable to practise in the classroom, and why? 221 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section A: Section C: Stages in a reading task Stage Pre-reading While-reading Activity Purpose Teacher asks the To share ideas and class personal create interest in the questions about how topic they help family and To prepare students for friends the reading by helping Teacher checks the them to predict meaning of latrine content and solar cooker To check the meaning Class looks at the of key vocabulary pictures and discusses them Class reads the To give students a passage silently and reason for reading try to find answers to To build confidence and two gist questions develop skills Class reads the To facilitate students’ passage and decides understandiang of the if the statements are passage true or false 222 Secondary Teachers Training Stage Activity Students Purpose have a To personalise the topic chance to answer the To integrate the four guiding questions Post-reading Students skills and To ask answer questions in grammar pair about how they vocabulary help people the text Students write paragraph their a about partner homework 223 for consolidate and learnt in Teaching English- 1 Session 24 Teaching Reading 3 Introduction Process of reading, not mentioned in EfT, reading method is to follow three stages, students need to know what they read what they do after reading. Pre reading is instruction, while reading students read, comprehension and transfer imformation Different types of reading and reading tasks have already been discussed in previous lessons. Within a single reading task type, there are three stages to be followed. In EfT, there are many reading activities in different lessons. However, the process of arranging the reading activity properly is not mentioned in the EfT. It is the responsibility of the teacher to practise the reading task methodically. And the method is nothing but to follow the three stages. If the students are simply asked to read the text, it is worthless. The students should have a clear idea what they are going to read and what they will do after reading. After the scene setting, the students will read the text but before that, the students should be given specific task to be done after reading. The first stage, pre-reading, is the instruction for the learners on what to do during and after the lesson. At while-reading stage, the learners read the whole text with comprehension and transfer the information into some other exercises. Objectives By the end of the session, you will be able to revise the three stages of a reading lesson and their purposes practise developing pre-reading activities practise developing while-reading activities 224 Secondary Teachers Training Section A Stages of a reading lesson, sequencing activities Teaching a lesson on reading is to follow three stages. In each stage, the teacher has to do some activity sequentially, which help the learners comprehend the text properly. Look at the following stages of a reading lesson in EfT 7, unit 1, lesson 10. They are in the wrong order. Can you put them in the correct order and decide whether they belong to the pre-, while- or post-reading boxes (in the table below)? SS compare their paragraphs when they have finished and help each other to correct them Write the following question on the board: Why did Laila start to cry? When SS have finished reading, elicit the answer to the pre-reading question. (Because she thought the sound was a ghost) Check that SS understand these vocabulary items from the text: go to sleep/suddenly/sound/afraid. Explain any other items SS do not understand. Ask SS to read the comprehension questions in section B. SS should complete the questions by filling in the missing words. Ask SS to read the text again silently to answer the comprehension questions. Check all the answers around the class. SS complete the paragraph in section C, based on what they understood from the text. SS look at the picture. Ask them what it is. Elicit that it is an owl and that it is a kind of bird that flies at night. Ask if SS have ever seen an owl. Ask where and when. 225 Teaching English- 1 Ask Ss to read the passage silently to find the answer to this question. Allow enough time for everyone to finish. Look at the title of the passage. Check that SS know the meaning and pronunciation of 'ghost'. Ask if they believe in ghosts. Start from here: Pre-reading 1) 2) 3) While-reading 4) 5) 6) Post-reading 7) 8) 9) 10) 226 Secondary Teachers Training Section B Developing pre-reading activities There is a lot more detail in the plan above than may necessarily be found in EfT or in the TG. It may at times be necessary for the teacher to add more tasks to ensure that pre-, while- and post-reading stages are covered. At times, the book presents the passage alone, but it is part of our work to make sure all three stages are there in detail to facilitate students’ understanding. Remember the three purposes of pre-reading activities: To create interest in the topic To prepare students for reading To check the meaning of key vocabulary Now, go back to EfT 7, unit 2, lesson 2. Read the story for three minutes and identify the following: a. How would they create interest in the story? b. How would they make use of the picture to prepare students? c. Which items of vocabulary would they pre-teach at this level? 227 Teaching English- 1 Section C Developing while-reading activities While-reading stage is the main part of reading a lesson while the learners are engaged in reading and comprehending the text, grasping meanings While reading most important students read comprehend and grasp meaning etc. At this stage, the learners also do the tasks the teacher asks for as reading comprehension. Think one or two simple questions for the same passage which will give students a reason for reading, but to make sure that the questions are not too detailed.(Detailed questions are more appropriate in the post reading section, when the general meaning of the passage has been understood) You can start here: 1. ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 2. ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 3. ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 228 Secondary Teachers Training Teaching Reading 3 Key learning points English is a foreign language in Bangladesh. Our students have little chance to meet this foreign language outside the classroom. What they can do is to read English books, journals, etc. If the students know how to read faster, it will help them in real life. English teachers of secondary schools here can play a vital role to develop the students’ reading skills. Most of the time in our daily life, we read silently. In real life, students will have to read on their own. If they read silently, they are able to read at their own speed and within a short time, it is possible to read several pages. Therefore, the skills of reading silently need to be developed inside the classroom. There are three stages to develop silent reading skills: pre-reading, while-reading, postreading stage. Prereading The pre-reading task is usually a kind of little briefing / scene-setting of what is going to happen. It helps students to prepare mentally for the text. This could be done by showing pictures, asking questions or giving them some tasks to introduce the topic. The purpose of this stage is to motivate the students and arouse their interest in the topic. Here the teacher should not say too much about the text. Otherwise, students will lose their interest. After that, the teacher will introduce the new words and give some tasks the students will do in whilereading stage. 229 Teaching English- 1 Whilereading At this stage students will read the text silently. They should have to finish reading within the allocated time. The while-reading tasks are usually one or two general and simple questions which guide students towards reading. These questions must be given in the prereading stage. But these can only be answered (mentally), while the students are actually reading the text. These questions are then answered immediately after the first reading before the detailed post-reading tasks are given. Postreading After the while-reading stage, the teacher will elicit the answers to the guiding questions. Then post-reading tasks are given before the students start reading for 2nd time. These usually consist of more detailed questions or information-transfer tasks. They can be answered after the second or 3rd reading. Assessment of your learning: Answer to the following question briefly: As an English teacher, how can you develop the reading skill of your learners? 230 Secondary Teachers Training Probable Answers Section A: Stages of a reading lesson, sequencing activities Pre-reading 1) Look at the title of the passage. Check SS know the meaning and pronunciation of 'ghost'. Ask if they believe in ghosts. 2) SS look at the picture. Ask them what it is. Elicit that it is an owl and that it is a kind of bird that flies at night. Ask if SS have ever seen an owl. Ask where and when. 3) Check that SS understand these vocabulary items from the text: go to sleep/suddenly/sound/afraid. Explain any other items SS do not understand. While-reading 4) Write the question on the board: Why did Laila start to cry? 5) Ask SS to read the passage silently to find the answer to this question. Allow enough time for everyone to finish. 6) When SS have finished reading, elicit the answer to the guiding question. ( Because she thought the sound was a ghost) Post-reading 7) Ask SS to read the comprehension questions in section B. SS should complete the questions by filling in the missing words. Ask SS to read the text again silently to answer the comprehension questions. 8) SS complete the paragraph in section C based on what they understood from the text. 9) SS compare their paragraphs when they have finished and help each other correct them. 10) Check all the answers around the class, S- S. 231 Teaching English- 1 Section B: Developing Pre-reading activities By asking introductory questions such as: a. Do you know anyone around your village/town who does not have enough money? Can you describe him/her? b. When people have no money, what problems do they face? a) By asking students to: Describe the picture. Describe the two people. What do you think they are talking about? Describe the second picture. Why do you think the woman looks sad? b) For example: pencils crying day labourer sick Section C: Developing while-reading activities Why are the people standing around the woman? Why is the woman sad? What is the woman’s problem? 232 Secondary Teachers Training Session 25 Teaching Speaking 2 Introduction Speaking important effective communication good speech impress permanently good orators spell bind audience teachers live on teachers so speaking important for both teachers students When we learn a language, we learn to speak it first. There are many languages in the world, which are mainly spoken, and they do not have any written scripts. Most of the languages of our tribal people have their spoken form only. For effective communication, speaking is the most important and dominating skill. Many people in the country, though not highly educated, can draw a permanent impression on the people surrounding them only for their good speech. The audience in a meeting becomes spellbound because of the speech of a good orator. Teachers, lawyers, and politicians are some of the people who live on lectures. Therefore, it is of great importance to develop the speaking skill of the students as well as the techniques of teaching speaking too. Objectives By the end of the session, you will be able to consider the difference between controlled and free speaking practice use situational English ( notions/functions) familiarize with controlled and free speaking activity in EfT identify the advantages and problems of pair work and find the ways to overcome them 233 Teaching English- 1 Section A Controlled and free practice Practice under teacher’s striet control, no freedom follow teachers. In free practice students speak independently. In controlled practice, a specific structure is practised under the strict control of the teacher. The students have only limited or sometimes no freedom or choice of things to do. They just follow the teacher’s instruction and do the activity like parrots. In controlled practice, students do not have much scope to expose themselves because certain pattern is practised here through some tasks. On the other hand, in free practice, students have scope to speak of their own. The teacher only selects the topic here and creates the situation where students can be involved in speaking. Identify some controlled and free speaking tasks. You can start here: 1. ............................................ 2. ............................................ 3. ........................................... 4. ........................................... Section B Situational English Speaking habit formation, students taught involving isn speaking teacher create artificial situation use apropriate language Learning speaking is one kind of habit formation. The teacher cannot teach speaking through delivering lectures. It can be taught involving the students in speaking. For this, The teacher should create artificial situation so as to make the students able to use appropriate language in appropriate situation. 234 Secondary Teachers Training Now, make one sentence expressing each of the following notions/functions: wh-questin thanking a speaker wish threat felicitation condolence blessing polite request offer apology Section C Speaking Tasks in EfT: The English book EfT in secondary schools is designed in a communicative EfT designed communicative way all lessons include talk about the picture, students get chance to speak way. In each lesson, there are some language skills to be practised- may be single or integrated. Almost in all the lessons of EfT, the first activity is ‘Talking about the picture’ where the students get a chance to speak in pair or in group. Besides, in some lessons there are some activities also on speaking skills. Find out example of each type of activity from EfT classes 6 to 10 and make a note of the book, unit, and lesson in the space below in the right column: 235 Teaching English- 1 Activity Activity Type Repetition drill Controlled Substitution drill practice activities Question and answer drill from the text Dialogue practice from the text Gap filing with clues Open questions and answers Dialogue practice Free practice activities Talking about a picture Exchanging personal information Talking about any situation, Debate Extempore (speaking on something without any previous preparation) Conducting interviews Role play 236 Book reference Secondary Teachers Training Section D Pair works Participatory approach, pair work, group work traditional sitting, pair, group work possible Many techniques can be used in participatory approach of teaching. Pair work is one of them. This is very effective for practice speaking. Even in the traditional sitting arrangement on the bench in our schools, pair work can be managed easily. Yet, it has some problems. Mention some problems of pair work and explain how we can overcome those problems. Start from here: Sl no. Problems of pair work 01 02 03 04 05 237 Ways of overcoming Teaching English- 1 Teaching Speaking 2 Key Learning Points Controlled Speaking Practice: It is an intensive oral practice of a particular structure, which is controlled by the teacher so that the students have no choice or only a limited choice of things to say; the possibility of error is thus reduced to a minimum. Typically, controlled practice takes the form of some kind of drill which requires the students to respond to a prompt (also known as cue) provided by the teacher or textbook. The response is ‘controlled’ in that it must follow a certain pattern on which the teacher is focusing in the lesson. The most useful stage of lesson for controlled practice is, therefore, immediately after the presentation of a structure, when the aim is to familiarize the students with the form of the new structure. Free Speaking Practice: It is one kind of free activity, which requires the students to use the structure to express their own ideas or to talk about their own experiences. The activity may also require the students to use other structures, which they know. The result is that in a free activity the students use a greater variety of language than in a controlled activity. Another feature of free practice activities is that there is less control by the teacher: the students are very often required to work in pairs or groups, and the teacher’s job is to go round the classroom checking that everyone is doing the activity properly. After setting up the activity, the teacher does not talk at all: the students do all the talking. Furthermore, the teacher generally does not interrupt the activity to correct errors, but makes a note of persistent errors and deals with them with the whole class after the activity is over. 238 Secondary Teachers Training The goal of controlled practice is to develop students’ accuracy whereas the goal of free oral practice is to develop their fluency, that is, the ability to express themselves in English freely and fluently, without stopping after each word to think whether it was correct or not. The trainees should not think of oral exercise as being either completely controlled or completely free. The terms ‘controlled’ or ‘free’ should be regarded as the two end-points of a scale, and most practice activities lie at some point along the scale, depending on the extent to which they are or are not controlled. We can illustrate this by drawing a line on the board and labeling it: CONTROLLED ................................................. FREE We can plot different types of oral practice on this scale according to the degree of control or freedom they have: thus a completely controlled activity like a repetition drill or substituting drill would come right at the controlled end of the scale, whereas a completely free activity like an open class discussion would appear at the other end. However, there are plenty of less controlled, semi-free activities which would come in between, and which logically follow on from the controlled practice stage of the lesson. They form part of a natural progression of activities from controlled to less controlled and finally to free practice of language. 239 Teaching English- 1 Different types of speaking practice Controlled Practice: Repetition drill Substitution drill Question and answer drill from the text Dialogue practice from the text Gap-filling with clues Free practice: Open questions and answers Dialogue practice Talking about a picture Exchanging personal information Talking about any situation Debate Extempore (speaking on something without any previous preparation) Conducting interviews Role play Why only of Free speaking practice? Why not of controlled speaking practice? Strengths: Free speaking practice gives students the maximum amount of speaking practice possible in the class It allows shy students to speak so that they are not on ‘show’ Students share ideas and knowledge with each other It makes class less teacher-oriented Students learn to co-operate More challenging as everyone participates 240 Secondary Teachers Training Weaknesses: Class might be noisy Some students might slip into using Bangla Students might make lots of mistakes It takes too much time The teacher is not involved- s/he just watches Students might not co-operate Pair work: Arranging pair work is an important technique to implement participatory approaches for teaching and learning. In pair work, the Pair Work teacher divides the whole class into pairs. Every student works with his or her partner, and all the pairs work at the same time. If the class has an odd number of students, the student who has no partner at the end can form a group of three with the last pair. Advantage of pair work: The main advantage of pair work is to increase the amount of practice that each individual student gets: in pair Advantages work, all the students practise speaking. If the exercises were done ‘round the class’, the students would only say one sentence each, and in a large class, many students would say nothing at all. Pair work has other advantages too: many students feel less anxiety when they are practicing in pairs than when they are ‘on show’ in front of the whole class. This is particularly true for shy students who would never say anything in a whole class activity. Pair work also encourages students to share ideas and knowledge, and to learn in cooperation with one another, rather than in isolation. Disadvantage of pair work: Pair work might have challenges in terms of noise, discipline and mistakes. But these problems can be avoided if the following measures are taken: 241 Teaching English- 1 1. Noise: Obviously, pair work in a large class will be noisy. In that case, the students can be told to speak quietly to each other. There is no need to speak in a loud voice as the partners are sitting together. Besides, the noise created by pair work is a productive one as the students are using English, and are engaged in a learning activity. 2. Discipline: To stop pair work activities getting out of control, and to ensure that the students speak in English, the following measures can be taken: - the teacher can give clear instruction, if necessary in Bangla as well as in English. - the teacher can give clear examples of the kind of things that s/he expects the students to say to one another; first with a student (TS) and then between two students to ‘model’ it to the whole class(S-S), before dividing the students into pairs. - the teacher should give clearly defined tasks which do not continue for a long time. - the teacher may set up a routine so that the students get used to the idea of working in pairs and know what to do. - the teacher should go round the class checking that the students are doing the pair work properly, and making a note of any mistakes they are doing so that the teacher can deal with them later on. 3. Mistakes: Making mistakes is a part of the process of learning, and the teacher should not worry too much if the students make a few mistakes during pair work. However, if they make a lot of mistakes, it is usually because they are insufficiently prepared. Therefore, it is important to do the following: - Language ( e.g. structures and vocabulary) should be practised before the pair work activity begins 242 Secondary Teachers Training - The teacher should demonstrate the activity one or twice with the whole class before asking the students to do it in pair. Besides, it may be useful to check for mistakes afterwards. The teacher can ask some pairs to do what they said, and then correct mistakes, if necessary. Generally, the teacher should not interrupt to correct students during the pair work activity itself, because it is distracting for them and breaks up their concentration. Assessment of trainees’ learning: Answer to the following questions: 1. What are the differences between controlled and free speaking activity? 2. What are strengths and weaknesses of the free speaking practice? 3. Explain the problems of pair work. How can we overcome those problems? 243 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section A : Controlled and free practice 1. Practice of present perfect tence. 2. Practice of a classroom instruction 3. Placing a request. 4. Inviting a friend Section B : Situational English Wh-question: When were you born, Mr. Nibras? Thanking a speaker: I would like to extend my heartiest thanks to Professor Mukarram Hossain for his excellent presentation on an important topic ‘Presenting structure’. I think my trainees have got much benefit on the topic. So, thank you once again Prof. Mukarram Hossain. Wish: Wish you good luck my son. Threat: You haven’t done well. Anyway, I will see you. Felicitation: We would like to congratulate you on your promotion to the supreme post of the institution. Condolence: I am extremely sorry to hear the news of your father’s death. Polite request: Could you help me with your pen please? Offer: Would you like to have a cup of tea? Apology: I am sorry I couldn’t go there in time. Blessing: Long live our country/Long live Bangladesh. 244 Secondary Teachers Training Session 26 Teaching Speaking 3 Introduction English skill different than other subjects, no content practice is important students become proficient use picture EfT roles of teachers and students We teach English as a skill for the students to acquire and use it in and outside the classroom, rather than as a body of information in a textbook for them to learn. This makes English a rather different subject on the curriculum from ‘content’ subjects like Geography. Practice is very important for learning any skill, whether it be a sport, a musical instrument or a language. Without practice, the learners can not hope to be fluent or skilled; it is equally true for learning to speak a language, as it is of learning to play a sport like football. Of course, the learners’ first need to be shown what to do i.e. the role of the teacher, but then s/he needs to practise it in order to become proficient in it. This session deals with the practice of speaking skill using picture in EfT as well as the roles of teachers and learners. Objectives At the end of the session, you will be able to explore the role of pictures in promoting free speaking in EfT analyse the role of the teacher during speaking activities practise making sentences expressing some notions/functions. 245 Teaching English- 1 Section A Further use of picture in EfT In EfT from classes 6 to 9-10, almost all the lessons start with a speaking Talk About the Picture A free speaking activity activity. The activity is based on a picture. In EfT for classes 6 to 8, the students are asked only to talk about the picture, whereas in class 9-10, some clues or sometimes some questions are supplied, which the students use for talking about the picture. Even after that, the teacher has scope to give students more extra tasks to direct the students towards speaking. Look at EfT for class 9-10, unit 10, lesson 3, section A. There are four questions below the picture. Make some more additional questions that can be used to discuss about the picture. You can start here: .............................................................. ............................................................. ............................................................. ............................................................. Again, look at EfT 6, unit 7, lesson 3, section A, where there is no question after the picture. But to exploit the picture for speaking practice, you must need some questions. Now make some questions with which the picture can be discussed. Start from here: 1. ......................................................... 2. ......................................................... 3. ......................................................... 4. ......................................................... 246 Secondary Teachers Training Section B Teacher’s role during speaking activity Teachers role create In a speaking class, the teacher’s role is to create a friendly atmosphere friendly atmosphere so that all the students can participate in speaking activity. The teacher should help weak students should help the weak students too. 1. Look at the following two case studies where two teachers are doing speaking practice in the classroom with the picture. Teacher A The teacher has asked the students to look at the pictures on page 117 of EfT 9/10 and then to discuss the questions in pairs. As the students work together, the teacher moves around the class listening to each pair. At times she offers correction, for example when students get stuck, but mostly she makes notes on a notebook so that she can offer general feedback at the end of the activity, on grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation errors. She knows that if she corrects the students as they are speaking they may get discouraged. When she sees two students working well she praises them. At the end of the activity, she mentions first what they did well, and only then gives some feedback on the common errors. The students seem unafraid of her and trust her. Occasionally when she monitors they turn to her to ask questions. Teacher B After entering the class the teacher asks the students to open their books and look at page 109 n EfT 9/10. The teacher describes the picture in Bangla and then asks a few questions to individual student. The questions are mostly of a yes/no variety such as ‘ Is there a man in the picture?’ The students answer chorally. He then asks them to discuss the 247 Teaching English- 1 picture in pairs. As they begin to speak, he sits on a chair at the front, marking scripts and occasionally looking out of the window. Soon they run out of things to say and speak in low voices in Bangla. Some of them feel confused but no one explains this to the teacher. Looking up, he notices the silence and concludes that these students are weak: it’s clearly the fault of the primary schools. Deciding to carry on, he moves to the next section and begins to read in a loud voice. Try to answer the following questions. a. Which class is more effective, and why? Ans ...................................................................................... .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. b. What are the roles of the teacher A? Ans. ...................................................................................... .............................................................................................. .............................................................................................. 248 Secondary Teachers Training Section C Using notions/functions Appropriacy important speaking comes after fluency, accuracy using right language right situation Appropriacy is an important aspect of speaking. It comes after acquiring fluency and accuracy. However, appropriacy means using right language in the right situation. Make sentences expressing the following notions/functions: 1. Offer: 2. Request: 3. Command: 4. Threat: 5. Wishes: 6. Thanking a speaker: 249 Teaching English- 1 Teaching Speaking 3 Key Learning Point The teacher will monitor, give support where necessary, give clear instructions, create friendly atmosphere, praise students, use target language as much as possible and offer correction in plenary. The teacher must not frighten the students. Assessment of your learning: Answer the following question briefly How can you help your students to avoid mistakes during speaking practice? 250 Secondary Teachers Training Probable Answers Section A: Further use of picture in Eft 1st part: What are the women doing? Is this a rural or an urban scene? How do you know? What type of house do you see in the picture? How is it different from your house? Do you think their life is easy or difficult? Why? 2nd part: How do you come to school? By rickshaw? Just walk? What is the man doing in the garden? Is it a boys’ school or a girls’ school? How do you know? How old is the rickshaw puller? Do you prefer rickshaws or baby taxis? Can you describe the house in the picture? Section B: Teacher’s role during speaking activity The first class is clearly more effective as the students are working together, have clear goals, and are monitored by the teacher. The role of the teacher in speaking activities is: to monitor to give support where necessary not to frighten the students 251 Teaching English- 1 not to offer constant correction, but to take notes and realise what needs to be addressed in a plenary after the speaking has finished, especially on grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. to give clear instructions to develop an encouraging atmosphere. to use the target language wherever possible to praise students for what they do well, not only focussing on problems Section C : Using notions/functions 1. Offer: Would you like to have a cup of tea? 2. Request: Would you mind giving me your pen? 3. Command: March on. 4. Threat: I will take revenge for your misdeeds. 5. Wishes: I wish you better success in the exam. 6. Thanking a speaker: I would like to extend my heartiest thanks to Prof. Mukarram Hossain for his excellent speech on ‘CLT Methodology’. 252 Secondary Teachers Training Session 27 Teaching Speaking 4 Introduction Language main purpose communication three aspects fluency, accuracy apropriacy follow techniques correcting mistakes The main purpose of using a language is to communicate with others. The responsibility of the teachers in the classroom is to make the students able to use the language in and outside the classroom. In this regard, the teacher should look at three aspects of using a language gradually. These are- fluency, accuracy and appropriacy. To make the students accurate in using the language, the teacher should follow some techniques of correcting students’ mistakes. This lesson focuses on the issues of correcting spoken English in the classroom. Objectives At the end of the session, you will be able to focus on ways of correcting oral errors compare good and bad techniques for correcting students’ mistakes explore ways of giving supportive correction to students during and after oral practice activities Section A Types of Mistakes Mistakes : grammatical, prounuciation, appropriacy A speaker may do different types of mistakes while speaking, such asvocabulary mistakes, grammatical mistakes, pronunciation mistakes, mistakes of appropriacy etc. Now, read the following conversation between a customer and the sales person. Find out the errors in the conversation and categorize them under each type. 253 Teaching English- 1 Customer: Excuse/ekskju:z/ me. Sales person: Yes, I can help you? Customer: Oh yes, I want to buy a diary. Do you have any? Sales person: Yes, of course. There are much. Which one you like? Customer: I want to buy a quality diary of Azad Products. Sales person: Ok, this is the best/bæst/ quality diary of Azad Products. You like this? Customer: Yes, I like. But, how much is it? Sales person: It’s only Tk. 250/. Customer: Hand me this one. Sales person: Here you are. Customer: You are welcome Sales person: Thank you. Start from here: Vocabulary error: .................................................................................................. . ................................................................................................... Grammatical error: ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... Pronunciation error: ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... Error of appropriacy: ................................................................................................... ................................................................................................... 254 Secondary Teachers Training Section B: Opinions about error correction: Teachers different attitudes, negative attitudes discourage learners Many teachers have different attitudes towards correcting their students. Due to having many teachers’ negative attitudes of correcting errors, students are discouraged to participate in the speaking activity. Read the different opinions of error correction below and put a tick mark (√) if you agree or a cross (X) if you disagree or a question mark (?) if you are not sure, at the right column. Opinion Your reaction A You should correct every mistake made by your students. B Some mistakes are more serious than others. C You should focus only on what went wrong when an activity is finished. D Giving students praise makes them more motivated. E Mistakes are an inevitable part of the learning process. If you try to stamp out mistakes, it’s better not to speak at all. F I only like my students to produce perfect sentences, so I ask them to repeat everything after me. G If you don’t correct every mistake, students will learn from their mistakes. H It’s more important to be accurate than to be fluent. I I like it when people correct every mistake I make. J It’s possible to communicate making mistakes. 255 well despite Teaching English- 1 Section C Positive and negative correction: Same mistakes corrected different ways, teacher should follow encouraging techniques The same mistakes, done by students, can be corrected in different way. A teacher should know all possible ways and s/he should follow the encouraging technique to correct students’ errors. Look below at the way eight teachers respond to a simple mistake made by a student who is answering a question asked by the teacher. Which one of eight techniques do you think good, and which ones are not? Why do you think so? Student: “My father has a long hair”. Teacher1: “No.” T2: “No. Anyone else?” T3: “Good” T4: “He has long hair.” T5: “No article.” T6: “He has a long hair?” T7: “Just one? Like this?” (draws bald man with one long hair). T8: “Oh, he has long hair, has he?” (reformulating) 256 Secondary Teachers Training Teaching Speaking 4 Key Learning Points The purpose of speaking is to convey the message to others. It is possible to transfer the message even if the sentence is grammatically incorrect. However, to be perfect speaker, one has to be definitely correct in speaking. At the initial stage, learners should be encouraged and they should be involved in speaking more and more. In the classroom, the learners may do many mistakes. It is the responsibility of the teachers to correct the errors in a positive way. If the learners are humiliated, they will not be motivated to speak. A teacher, while correcting students’ errors in speaking, should remember the following points: 1. As far as possible, encourage the students, focussing on what they have got right, not on what they have got wrong. 2. Praise students for correct answers, and even for partly correct answers; in this way they will feel they are making progress. 3. Avoid humiliating students or making them feel that making a mistake is ‘bad’. 4. Correct errors quickly. If too much time is spent over correcting errors, it gives the errors too much importance, and holds up the lesson. Let us look at an example of error correction: T: Abdul- what do you do in the morning? S: I....am.....get up.....at half past six. T: Hmm, that’s not right, is it? ‘I get up’ – not ‘I am get up’. ‘I get up’. Motin, what about you? 257 Teaching English- 1 Here- The teacher was very discouraging, although the students tried to give a good answer. - The teacher did not give the students a chance to say the sentence correctly. - Although the teacher asked a real question, s/he showed no interest in the student’s reply. The teacher could correct the students following any technique from the below: 1. The teacher could correct the student in a more positive way, and give him/her a chance to say the sentence correctly. e.g. T: Well, all right, but – I get up. Again. S: I get up at half past six. T: That’s right. Good. 2. The teacher could help the student to correct him/herself, by showing where the error was in the sentence: T: Yes, OK, nearly. What should it be? I g...... S: I get up at half past six. T: That’s right. Good. 3. The teacher can pass the question to another student, and then come back to the first student again: T: Well, nearly, anyone else? What do you do in the morning? Yes – Motin? S2: I get up at seven o’clock. T: Yes, that’s right, I get up. Now, Abdul - again. S1: I get up at half past six. T: Yes, well done. 258 Secondary Teachers Training This technique helps to involve the rest of the class, but it should be used with care; it is important not to make the first student ‘victimised’ or inferior. Assessment of your learning: Answer the following question briefly1. As an English teacher, how will you correct the students’ speaking? Discuss. 259 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Teaching Speaking 4 Section A: Type of Mistakes Vocabulary error: There are much. Hand me this one. Grammatical error: I can help you? Which one you like? Pronunciation error: Excuse me. This is the best quality.... Error of appropriacy: You are welcome. Thank you. 260 Secondary Teachers Training Section B: Opinions about error corrections Opinion Your reaction A You should correct every mistake made by X your students. B Some mistakes are more serious than others. √ C You should focus only on what went wrong √ when an activity is finished. D Giving students praise makes them more E motivated. √ Mistakes are an inevitable part of the learning ? process. If you try to stamp out mistakes, it’s better not to speak at all. F I only like my students to produce perfect X sentences, so I ask them to repeat everything after me. G If you don’t correct every mistake, students X will learn from their mistakes. H It’s more important to be accurate than to be X fluent. I I like it when people correct every mistake I make. J X It’s possible to communicate well despite making mistakes. √ 261 Teaching English- 1 Section C: Positive and Negative Correction T1: Very negative, and gives no clue as to where the mistake is. T2: Good to involve other students, but be careful of humiliating the first student T3: Encouraging, but not very helpful to the student! T4: A clear correction, but the student doesn’t need to think T5: Again negative, and not a real response to the student T6: One of the best – pointing out the mistake but getting the student to consider the correction for him/herself T7: Using humour is a good idea – and this response shows where the mistake is. T8: Very nice – a natural response, but be careful – the students might not notice the difference between the teacher’s version of sentence and their own! 262 the Secondary Teachers Training Session 28 Teaching Writing 2 Introduction Writing good means communication, medium of expression spelling and punctuation controlled, guided free Writing is the last of all the four skills that we are to teach our students in schools. It is a good means of communication with people who are far from us in terms of both time and space. It is an effective way of reaching people we have never seen, nor will ever see. It is a strong medium of expression of any idea. Spelling and punctuation are the two important aspects of writing, which play comparatively less important role in speaking. Usually three types of writing i.e. controlled, guided and free writing are practised in the classroom. Among these three, this session deals with the first two types. Objectives At the end of the session, you will be able to revise the concepts of controlled and guided writing practise and analyse controlled and guided writing tasks compare and contrast between controlled and guided writing Section A Revision concept of controlled and guided writing We know that controll and guidance are needed for developing speaking skills (in oral practice), so they are equally important for writing too. Can you remember what we discussed about controlled, guided and free writing activity in the session “Teaching Writing (2)”? Can you write a few words about these three? 263 Teaching English- 1 Controlled writing: ................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. Guided writing: ..................................................................................... ............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. Free writing: ......................................................................................... ............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. Section B Controlled writing tasks Controlled practice is the first step in developing writing skills: introducing students to writing through easy exercises and gradually progressing to freer activities. A teacher can practise various types of controlled writing activity in the classroom. Let us experience some types of controlled writing activity. 1. Fill in the gaps in the text using suitable words from the box below: In my school when I was a student in class 8 I had two English teachers. One of them was newly (a) _____, but we knew the other one already. I was always (b) ____ of my old English teacher – she was very (c) _____. She never (d) _______ me, but she never (e) ______ either. At that time, I didn’t understand why I was so afraid of her. But looking back, I can see that all we wanted was a (f) _______ face. Every time she asked me a question, I began to (g) _______ and stammer, even when I knew the answers! My (h) _____ went dry and not a word would come out. 264 Secondary Teachers Training Choose from these words: scary appointed mouth smiling tremble scolded afraid smiled Start from here: a).................... b)...................... c) ........................ d) ..................... e) ....................... f) ....................... g) ........................ h) .......................... 2. Again, look at the jumbled sentences about Shah Rukh Khan,s daily routine. Then write them in the correct order. Shah Rukh Khan Shah Rukh Khan gets up at 10 am. He goes there in his golden Pajero. At the end of the day, he comes home at the dead of night. He first practises dance for half an hour When these are finished, he goes to the studio Feeling refreshed and clean, he drives 25km to take his breakfast in a five-star hotel. Then he takes his shower for one hour with a very big bottle of shampoo. While eating, he takes phone calls for one hour 265 Teaching English- 1 Start from here: 1. .................................................................................... 2. .................................................................................... 3. .................................................................................... 4. .................................................................................... 5. .................................................................................... 6. .................................................................................... 7. .................................................................................... 8. .................................................................................... Section C Guided writing tasks Guided writing provide guidence clues require more time In guided writing activity, students are not completely controlled. They are provided some guidance or clues with which students write something. Guided writings are larger than the controlled writings and they require more time. Now let us do some guided writing activity. 1. Read the paragraph below about a teacher who was very popular. Then write another paragraph about a teacher you remember in a similar positive way. My favourite teacher In Class 5 we had a lovely teacher. Her name was Mrs Afroza Begum She was always smiling and was very kind to us children. She wore colourful sariees, and shiny bangles and rings. She advised her lazy students to do hard work She always spoke English in class and encouraged all of us. I liked her very much and still remember her today. Start from here: 266 introduction identity character dress behaviour teaching style final comment Secondary Teachers Training My Favourite Teacher ............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. 2. Again, read the notes below, and then construct a paragraph linking the ideas. 267 Teaching English- 1 BEd course Join the BEd course! For future English teachers One year course Minimum qualification: graduate Eight subjects Five compulsory, two elective, one optional Co-curricular activities Two-phase teaching practice Very enjoyable Good career prospects! Start from here: BEd Course ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................. 268 Secondary Teachers Training Section D Reflection on controlled and guided tasks Controlled and guided writings are the primary steps towards development of writing skills. However, both of them have benefits and drawbacks. Now find out some benefits and problems of controlled and guided writings. Start from here: Controlled Benefits problems Guided benefits problems 269 Teaching English- 1 Teaching writing 2 Key Learning Points There are three types of writing. controlled writing, guided writing and free writing. In this lesson controlled and guided writing are discussed. - The term ‘controlled’ refers to writing exercises where all or most of the language the students have to use in the exercise is provided (e.g. a list of words or phrases) and the students normally have to choose appropriately from the languages provided, e.g. Copying ( from a substitution table), gap filling, writing from a table of information, reordering a text etc. - ‘Guided’ writing refers to exercises, which are less tightly controlled in respect of the language the students use. e.g. Writing from a model, writing from notes etc. There are several types of controlled and guided writing, such as1. Copying from substitution table This is a copying exercise, but the students have a choice of words to copy, and therefore, have to think about which is the correct choice for each sentence they write. They will not be able to do this exercise if they do not understand what they are copying from the table. For example, Shoes very wide. An window often made of leather. An ice cream is green with a red circle. Snakes are very old. The river Teesta very long with small heads. The Bangladeshi flag made of glass. 270 Secondary Teachers Training 2. Writing from a model ( with or without picture) In this kind of exercise, the students are given a model text to guide them and a set of picture ‘prompts’ to provide the new information. The prompts need not necessarily be in the form of pictures- they could be in the form of table of notes. However, the use of picture means that the students have to think more: they have to think of the right words for the activity shown in the picture. For example, Read the following passage about Sahahanara Begum’s daily routine: Shahanara Begum gets up early everyday. Then she collects the drinking water from the village tube well. Next, she cooks the breakfast and washes the dirty clothes. Then she sweeps the floors and keeps the house and yard clean. After that, she feeds the chickens and does the shopping. a) Now write a similar paragraph about Sabina’s daily routine. Or b) Write a paragraph about your own daily routine. 3. Gap Filing Gap-filling writing exercises like this are useful for focussing particular points of grammar or vocabulary, which have recently been taught. The exercise below focuses on past tense form for narrative writing. Look at the exercise below: Fill in the blanks using the verbs from the list below. Write them in the correct tense: enjoy have sit be tell love 271 live Teaching English- 1 Once upon a time there was an old man called Anwar Hussein. He ...............with his son. He ................three grandchildren. He often ............... with them. He ................... them very much and sometimes he ............... them interesting stories. He .................... a very good story-teller and many children ..............his stories. 4. Writing from notes In this kind of exercise, the students are given information in the form of notes, which they have to expand and link together to make a paragraph or a series of paragraphs. The notes may be in the form of ‘prompts’ as in this example, or in the form of a table of information. Look at the following example: Write a short paragraph about Abraham Lincoln using the following notes: Abraham Lincoln – born 1809, Kentucky, USA – father, poor farmer – became a lawyer – worked in Illinois – elected president 1860 – president during American civil war – assassinated 1865 – known as the great ‘Emancipator’ – freed the slaves. 5. Writing from a table of information: This exercise is similar to the previous one in which the students are writing from notes provided. In this exercise, however, the notes are presented in the form of table of in formation rather than ‘prompts’. There is also a model paragraph provided (here about Navin Thapa), to guide the students’ writing, by showing them how the tabulated information can be written up as a text. The students then base their own writing on this 272 Secondary Teachers Training model. (Noticeable that for writing about Janet Jones, students have to shift gender from ‘he’ to ‘she’.) Look at the following example: Look at the following table of information about Navin Thapa and Janet Jones and read the paragraph about Navin Thapa below: Name Navin Thapa Janet Jones Country Nepal England Home Kathmandu London Age 23 35 Occupation Student Doctor Place of work/study Bangladesh Agricultural Guy’s Hospital, University, Mymensingh London Married No Yes Family 2 brothers and 1 sister Husband – doctor Father – Shopkeeper 2 children – a boy Mother – School Teacher and a girl Navin Thapa comes from Nepal. He is Nepalese. His home is in Kathmandu. He is 23 years old and is a student. He studies in Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. He is not married. He has two brothers and one sister. His father is a shopkeeper and his mother is a secondary school teacher. a) Now write a similar paragraph about Janet Jones, using the information in the table. Or b) Write a similar paragraph about yourself and your family. 273 Teaching English- 1 6. Reordering text The main purpose of this type of exercise is to increase the students’ awareness of the importance of cohesion in writing, that is, how the ideas expressed in a written text are linked together in logical sequence of sentences so as to convey them as clearly as possible to the reader. Look at the following example: Look at the sentences of this paragraph about deep-sea animals taken from a passage entitled ‘The Secrets of the Sea’ in an old English Textbook for classes 11 & 12. The sentences are in the wrong order. Put them in the right order and then write out the paragraph. - Some deep-sea fishes are blind and have feelers to guide them. - In the deep sea, where sunlight cannot reach, there is no plant life. - The dragon fish, for example, can expand its stomach to swallow prey six times longer than itself. - But most of them produce their own light which illuminates their surroundings and helps them to find food. - Yet some animals do live there. - The deep-sea animals and fishes that live in this cold, dark world have developed strange forms and habits, which help them in their struggle for existence. - Thus it can make one meal last a long time, food being scarce in the deep sea. Strengths and weaknesses of controlled and guided writing: 274 Secondary Teachers Training Controlled writing: Strengths: 2. Controlled writing helps the students to develop good writing habits 3. In this writing, students make fewer mistakes. 4. It is easy to complete in shorter time 5. It builds confidence among the students. Limitations: 1. It seems to be mechanical 2. There is no room to express the own ideas of the learners. Guided writing: Strengths: 1. Learners have greater scope for imagination and expression 2. They may apply personal choice of answer 3. It helps to develop independent writing skills. Limitations: 1. More difficult than that of controlled writing 2. It has more chance of errors 3. Weaker students might face a challenge. Assessment of your learning: Answer to the following questions briefly1. Discuss different types of controlled and guided writing. 2. What are the differences between controlled and guided writing? 3. Between controlled and guided writing, which one is easier, and why? 275 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section B: Controlled writing tasks. 1. a) appointed b) afraid f) smiling g) tremble c) scary d) scolded e) smiled h) mouth 2. Shah Rukh Khan (There are clues in each sentence in bold, so this order is fixed) 1. Shah Rukh Khan gets up at 10 am. 2. He first practises dance for half an hour 3. Then he takes his shower for one hour with a very big bottle of shampoo. 4. Feeling refreshed and clean, he drives 25km to take his breakfast in a five-star hotel. 5. He goes there in his golden Pajero. 6. While eating, he takes phone calls for one hour. 7. When these are finished, he goes to the studio. 8. At the end of his working day, he comes home at the dead of night. 276 Secondary Teachers Training Section D: Reflection on controlled and guided tasks Controlled Benefits writing Problems Guided Benefits Helps develop good writing habits Students make fewer mistakes Easy to complete Easy to mark Builds confidence No room for own ideas Slightly mechanical More room for imagination and writing expression Personal choice of answers More likely to develop independent writing skills Problems More risk Greater likelihood of errors More difficult for certain students 277 Teaching English- 1 Session 29 Teaching Writing 3 Introduction It was mentioned earlier that there are three types of writing: controlled, Free writing most useful makes student creative think logically maintain logical sequence guided and free writing. In our daily life, free writing is the most useful one. In EfT for classes 6 to 9-10, there are many activities in different lessons based on free writing. Furthermore, free writing activity makes the students creative and through it, they can think logically and maintain the logical sequence of their writings. This session deals with the free writing activity and the factors related to it. Objectives At the end of the session, you will be able to consider the role of free writing explore the ranges of free writing tasks in EfT analysed product and process approaches to writing Section A Free writing in everyday life Among the three types of writing, free writing requires many information, logical coherence, and in that sense, it is very challenging. Make a list of free writing activities people do in their everyday life. Start from here: .................................................... .................................................... .................................................... .................................................... 278 Secondary Teachers Training Section B Free writing activities in EfT for classes 9 & 10 Students need experience of free writing not traditional composition real life demand free writing We need to give our students experience of writing more than the traditional composition-type question we all experienced in school, as real life demands on our writing abilities. EfT for class 6 to 9-10 have greater chance of practising free writing activities. Dear learners look through the pages of EfT 9-10 in the table below and identify the different types of writing tasks at the right column. English for Today 9/10 Task Type 1) Unit 2 Lesson 3 Section E Article 2) U 3 L 1 Section D 3) U 3 L 4 Section D 4) U 4 L 2 Section C 5) U 4 L 5 Section D 6) U 6 L 2 Section D 7) U 6 L 3 Section D 8) U6 L 4 Section D 9) U 8 L 2 Section E 10) U 21 L 2 Section E Section C The Product approach and process approach Two ways free writing : product and process demands students think activity in process approach These are the two ways of practising free writing activity in the classroom: the product approach and process approach. The process approach demands the students think and practice more actively than that of the product approach. 279 Teaching English- 1 Now, read the two case studies of teaching free writing in the classroom and decide which type of writing is learner friendly, and why? Teacher A - asks the students to take a fresh sheet of paper, dictates the first line of the story as follows: “One day Mina was on her way home from school when she saw - an extremely strange on the street....... asks students to continue the story and to finish it in 5 minutes after exactly 5 minutes, asks students to stop writing, even if they haven’t finished. Teacher B - asks the students “ you have been asked by the head teacher to encourage students to attend the classroom regularly. He has asked you to write an attractive advertisement for the school magazine with a slogan and three reasons why students should be regular in class. Though the design is taken care of by the graphics - department, but your job is to write the text only.” asks students to work in groups of 4. They should first discuss the - three reasons and take notes when they have a few ideas, each group is divided into two pairs - and each pair writes their slogan and three reasons After 5 minutes, the teacher puts the pairs back together and asks them to compare their first drafts. He also asks to comment on their ideas and the language of each pair’s drafts. - finally asks the group to produce a combination of the best ideas from both pairs for a second draft. Remember that the teacher ‘A’ practices product approach whereas the teacher ‘B’ practices process approach. 280 Secondary Teachers Training Teaching Writing 3 Key Learning Point In everyday life, people practise free writing most of the time. This includes emailing, taking notes from lectures, writing diaries, formal and informal letters, poems, short stories, articles for journals/magazines, instructions, notes and so on. There are two approaches for practising free writing in the classroom. These are: 1. The product approach: It is the traditional way our teachers practise in the class. In this approach the teachers ask the students to write freely on any topic. But the teacher doesn’t allow them to think about the topic in advance. Most of the time, the students memorise and just copy. There is nothing creative from the part of the students. It doesn’t help learners to develop writing skills at all. 2. The process approach: In this approach, the teacher follows a process to help the students develop writing skills. The teacher gives clear instructions. The students get time to think, discuss and share ideas with other students in the class. In this approach, even the students get a chance, to improve the first draft. The characteristics of these two approaches are given below: Product Approach Process Approach ∙ No scene-setting by the teacher ∙ No time to think ∙ No chance to plan and organise content ∙ No chance to share ideas ∙ No time to select appropriate language ∙ No time to make a first draft and then edit it to produce a second improved draft 281 More time to plan More opportunity to share ideas A chance to correct language A chance to sequence ideas A chance to make suggestions and improve the first draft Teaching English- 1 Benefits of process approach: - It gives students more opportunity to develop their writing skill. - It allows them to collaborate and produce better writing. - It produces more accurate and more fluent writing. - Above all, it is closer to the process of writing in real life, where we often discuss ideas with others, ask for their comments, and draft and redraft what we want to write. Assessment of your learning: Answer the following questions briefly1. What do you understand by product approach and process approach? Which one, according to you, is better practising free writing in the class, and why? 282 Secondary Teachers Training Probable Answer Section A : Free Writing in everyday life - Diary - Letter - Massage - Shopping list - Speech - article - CV - composition - report, etc. Section B : Free writing activities in Eft for classes 9 to 10 English for Today 9/10 1) Unit 2 Lesson 3 Section E Article 2) U 3 L 1 Section D Student Profile 3) U 3 L 4 Section D Letter 4) U 4 L 2 Section C Application 5) U 4 L 5 Section D Composition 6) U 6 L 2 Section D Describing a process 7) U 6 L 3 Section D Report writing 8) U6 L 4 Section D Essay 9) U 8 L 2 Section E Dialogue 10) U 21 L 2 Section E Story 283 Teaching English- 1 Section C: The product approach and process aproach The process approach (Teacher B) is more learner friendly, because s/he allows the students to plan and share ideas for writing. 284 Secondary Teachers Training Session 30 Teaching Vocabulary 2 Introduction A language can not function without vocabulary. So to develop any skills of the students and help them in communicating with others teachers need to improve their own vocabulary. One may think that vocabulary teaching means give the meaning of new words in Bangla. But it is more than that. In this session you will be able to enhance your knowledge and equip yourself in teaching vocabulary. You need an EfT of class 8 to study this session. Objectives By the end of the session you will be able to describe the benefits of teaching vocabulary identify ways of selecting vocabulary to be taught in a specific lesson identify key steps in presenting vocabulary use the strategies for vocabulary expansion Section A Brainstorming about the benefits of teaching vocabulary Think that you have to teach vocabulary to your students of secondary level. Now brainstorm and write the points how you would teach them to become more benefited from your teaching. The following questions will help you to think Will you give any examples? Will you give only meaning? How? What else can you use in presenting vocabulary? 285 Teaching English- 1 Section B Selecting vocabulary for pre-teaching Recall reading session, factors for selecting teaching new words, preteach certain words Think of what was covered in Teaching Reading 3: recalling that prior to reading or listening to texts, it is often important to pre-teach certain, but not all of the new words in the text. Now look at EfT class 8,Unit 2, Lesson 19 (‘Honesty is the Best Policy’) and select four important words which should be presented before teaching any skills. Now make a list of the factors involved in your choice of these words. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------We have to remember that all the new words should not be pre-taught. In this lesson you will find the words, such as attentively and exclaimed are not essential to the text, and need not be pre-taught (although the teacher may want to explain them after the initial reading of course). So the main distinction between the two groups of new words is that: Without the pre-taught words, the passage can not be easily understood. The other new words add colour but are not essential for basic understanding. However it can be said that presenting new words is important not only in developing reading skills but also other skills i.e. listening speaking, writing as well. 286 Secondary Teachers Training Section C Steps involved in presenting vocabulary The strategy for presenting new words repeat after teacher give meaning write on bb use in sentence present sequence in own way Now have a look at the narrative text below, which shows how a teacher teaches the word 'sneeze' by following the four steps. T: Say the word 'sneeze' with me. Ss: Sneeze T: Sneeze again T: Ss look. (mime sneezing) .Atcho! What have I just done? S 1: You have....... S 2: Hachi. T: I have sneezed T: This is how we write it (Writes the word on BB) T: Do you sneeze? Ss: Yes we do. T: Make a sentence with this word S3: The man is sneezing. (Different students can make different sentences) Step 1: Say the word out loud and ask the students to repeat after you (first all together and then a few individual students). Step 2: Give the meaning/clarification – using any of the 6 techniques from Teaching Vocabulary 1. Step 3: Write the word clearly on the right-hand vocabulary column of the BB (as discussed in Classroom Resources 3). Step 4: Use the word in a sentence so that students can hear it in context. (This is usually followed by practice activities for the students to use the words: these are covered in Teaching Vocabulary 3). Note: There is some flexibility in this sequence. If you feel strongly that Step 3 should be before Step 2 for example, and can give reasons for your choice, then feel free to present the sequence in your own way. 287 Teaching English- 1 Section D Vocabulary expansion Teach vocab in groups, games and word building creat, opportunities use the topic as starting point to increase vocabulary After learning a new word students are interested in learning other related words. Teacher can help students creating opportunities to develop or expand their vocabulary. In view of that s/he can teach new words in groups. For instance, s/he can use the topic of the unit as a starting point, and build up more related words, so that students can increase their vocabulary in a systematic, rather than random way. Another suggested way is that teacher can use an activity or game on word building or for vocabulary expansion. Think of that the topic of a particular lesson, for example, is ‘school’, and there are some words such as teacher and classroom in the text, what might be the possibilities for expansion? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Let us do a vocabulary expansion exercise which shows one way of displaying. This is a Spidergram and you have to characterise the different groupings in each bubble/circle of the spidergram. Vocabulary expansion: Spidergrams You have been teaching a lesson with a story about a market. This is how you expand the students’ vocabulary. Each of the different circles has a theme. Can you identify what the theme is? 288 Secondary Teachers Training Spidergram Title?_______ market marketing marketplace marketable marketing Title?_______ a shop a stall a supermarket a showroom a counter At the market Title?______ rice, meat, fish oil sugar, salt fruit vegetables Title?_______ a shopkeeper a shop assistant a customer a salesperson a farmer Title?______ buy sell bargain pay give change After this activity compare your answers with the answers given at the back of the session. 289 Teaching English- 1 Teaching Vocabulary 2 Key Learning Points The purpose of teaching a language is to make the learners handle the language realistically according to their needs. In view of that, while language teaching, a teacher should make the language comprehensible to the learners. Then they can pick up the language and use it. Before starting to teach any language skills, teachers should find the key words in the text that carry the meaning of the whole text and then find the words, which are new to the learners. These new words are to be taught very carefully so that the learners can use them either in speech or in writing or understand texts while listening or reading. Teaching new words does not merely mean to teach the meaning but it also includes how the word should be pronounced, spelt and used in context. The ways of presenting new words are shown below: Step 1 T should say the word out loud and ask the students to repeat after her/him (first altogether and then a few individual students). Step 2 Give the meaning /clarification – using any of the visual or verbal techniques. Step 3 Write the word clearly on the blackboard (right hand/left hand vocabulary column on the blackboard). Step 4 Use the word in a sentence so that students can hear it in a context (This is usually followed by practice activities for the students to use the words). Teachers can help students expand or increase their vocabulary. In view of that, the teacher can start with a topic of the unit in a systematic way. If a particular lesson, for example it, is ‘school’ then the possibilities of expansion would be: 290 Secondary Teachers Training a) Adding school subjects (English , history , physics, mathematics, etc) b) Adding the people who work in school (teacher, student, principal, etc) c) Adding the activities we follow in school (assembly, study, sit for exams, etc) d) Adding the places in school (yard, classroom, office, library, etc) The teacher could do it drawing a spidergram on board as shown within the session. The teacher could do some or all of these in one class. The words, which are already familiar to the students, can be elicited from them; others should be taught or presented. Assessment of your learning Why is it necessary for the teachers to teach a new word systematically and what are the steps that s/he should follow? Write the ways how would you teach the following new words to your students of class eight? 291 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section B: Selecting vocabulary Pale Enjoyed Ghost Discuss Factors involved in selecting those words The words are essential in order to understand the passage They are not found in previous lessons They are new words for Grade 8 students Section D: Vocabulary expansion Adding school subjects (history, geography etc…) Adding the people who work in a school (teacher, student, Principal) Adding the activities we follow in school (studying, revising, sitting exams) Adding the places in a school (yard, classroom, office, library) A teacher could do some, or all, of these in one lesson. Some of the words would be already familiar, and therefore could be elicited from the students. Others would be new, and would therefore be presented by the teacher. Section D: Spidergram a. Places b. People c. Things for sale/comodities d. Activities e. Dervations of the word ‘market’ 292 Secondary Teachers Training Session 31 Teaching Vocabulary 3 Introduction: Language users sufficient vocabularly, teachers responsibility show strategies to students to enrich vocabulary & keep record As English teachers we are aware about the importance of teaching vocabulary. We also know that language users should have sufficient vocabulary for effective communication. So teachers' responsibility is not only to teach the new vocabulary to the students but to show them the strategies to follow for enriching themselves with vocabulary. They can do this in the classroom and outside the classroom. In this session you will be acquainted with the strategies for expanding vocabulary and keeping them in records for retention. Objectives: By the end of the session you will be able to revise vocabulary expansion explore strategies for recording vocabulary identify strategies for recycling vocabulary revise vocabulary teaching ideas from sessions 1 & 2 Section A Revision of vocabulary expansion Vocabulary expansion through spidergram activity In the last session we have learnt the techniques of vocabulary expansions. Let us review. To do this write the word ‘furniture’ in the circle given below then draw a spidergram on it, using the following titles. 293 Teaching English- 1 Types of furniture Places Materials Uses Places Derivations Section B How to record vocabulary Teacher and students keep permanent records of vocabulary In classroom we introduce new words through expansion methods, and also cover many new words in each lesson in the book. Both the students and teachers need to keep careful records of these words. Now think and then write how a teacher can record the vocabulary which comes up in each class on the board, in a systematic way. 294 Secondary Teachers Training Let us do another activity. Through this we can have an idea how the teacher can keep a permanent record of this Imagine you have recently taught the words given below to different classes on the stated dates. Can you think of a systematic way to keep a record of this? Recording Newly Taught Words 23.02.04 Class 10 Convince Competent caring (Unit 15 Lesson 5) 27.03.04 08.02.04 Class 8 Smithy Bang Apprentice Spark (Unit 1 Lesson 7) 11.02.04 11.02.04 Class 9 Fierce Victorious During incident Class 8 Eggplant Admire scarecrow Dangerous Collect Jar germ 27.03.04 Class 6 Shopkeeper best Headache (Unit 4 Lesson 6) 08.02.04 23.02.04 Class 9 acres compulsory highway pursue Class 7 Gymnast Practise Postcard Famous 295 Teaching English- 1 Now think, how students can record the new words that they have learnt. Then compare your answers with the answers given the end of the lesson. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Section C Vocabulary practice/recycling activities Brainstorm on the following questions and write your answers: a. Why is it necessary to do practice activities with previously taught new words? b. Do you think it is difficult for students to remember new words? If so, why? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Then let us do the following activities 296 Secondary Teachers Training Vocabulary practice activities Look at the list below and decide which activities recycle meaning (M) spelling (S), pronunciation (P) (It could be one, two or all these) Activity 1. MSP T writes sentences on the board with gaps. The gaps are for words that SS have learnt before. SS copy the sentences and fill in the gaps. 2. T writes or says 6 words in Bangla and SS write them in English 3. T says 6 words in English and SS write them in Bangla. 4. T dictates 6 words to SS who write them down. 5. SS ‘test’ each other in pairs – one chooses words from a recent lesson, says them and the other writes them down. Then they change roles. Finally they check the meaning in their books. 6. T writes 5 words on the board. SS have to write a short story that includes all the words. 7. SS write the definitions (in English) of 6 words given by T. 8. T writes 6 words on the board with a number (1-6). T gives the definition of each and SS have to choose the correct words but just write the number. 9. T writes 6 words on the board but the letters are all mixed up. SS have to work in pairs to find the words and write them down. 10. T gives the meanings of 6 words and SS have to write down the correct words. 297 of Teaching English- 1 Section D Revision of Teaching Vocabulary sessions 1 & 2 Let us fill in the grid below, which revises some of the key vocabulary teaching ideas we have addressed. Vocabulary teaching: a summary The importance of teaching 1. vocabulary 2. 3. 6 Techniques for teaching vocabulary 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 3 Reasons for selecting vocabulary to 1. present 2. 3. 4 steps in presenting new words 1. 2. 3. 4. What categories would you expect to 1. find in vocabulary extension activity 2. on the topic of 3. ‘office’? 4. 5. After completing the grid compare your answer with the answer given at the end of the lesson. If you can successfully do all the exercises then you can feel confident about vocabulary teaching. 298 Secondary Teachers Training Teaching Vocabulary 3 Key Learning Points Vocabulary is an important part of language learning. Ability to use language depends on the user’s vocabulary. While teaching different language skills, teachers need to teach new words beforehand and at the same time show them the ways how to expand them. This is easy to follow spidergram method that enables the learners to find related words and help them remember also. While teaching a lesson, teacher can write new words in an organized way on the board so that throughout the whole lesson students can see them and understand their meaning and use in need. Teacher can use the right hand side or the left hand side of the board for writing new words that has been discussed in classroom management session. Teacher can ask students to keep records of the newly taught and learnt vocabulary. S/he can keep records for himself or herself as well. It will help them if they keep records with dates, classes, and lessons. Students can keep records in small note books or in exercise books. They can write the words in alphabetical format or chronological order of the lessons. With the word they can write translation, definition or draw pictures. Through spidergrams they may keep records of lexical sets e.g. school subjects or kinds of fruit or by grammar, with all verbs together, all nouns, etc. We do not live in an English speaking environment. Our students do not get chance to use all the learnt words in their daily lives. They tend to memorise the meaning of new words to pass in the exams. In most cases they learn them in isolation, not in context. They do not try to understand the actual use of them. So they may forget them easily. 299 Teaching English- 1 Therefore teacher should teach the new words with the contexts. After teaching new words in a regular interval s/he needs to organize different activities or language games through which students can practice and revise them. Obviously then the purpose of learning and enriching vocabulary will be effective for the students. Assessment of your learning How far your answers within the lesson could match with the possible answers given in the boxes? Are you confident about teaching vocabulary to your students? If so write the importance of each of the steps of vocabulary presentation. How can a teacher help the learners to expand their vocabulary and make their learning permanent? 300 Secondary Teachers Training Probable Answers Section A : Vocabulary expansion Spidergram Places House Office Classroom Playground etc Items Bookcase Desk Chair Bed Sofa etc Uses Furniture Materials Timber Bamboo Plastic Glass Steel/Iron Cane etc Derivations Furnish Furnishing etc 301 To sit on To lie down To relax To keep something on/in etc Teaching English- 1 Section B: keeping records on board Teacher keeps some space on the right-hand side (or left-hand side) of the board for vocabulary (as discussed in Classroom Resources 3) T writes each new word in this space, when presenting T erases the words when the class is over T also asks Ss to write down the same new words Section B: Recording newly taught words Here is an example of what your vocabulary records could look like after teaching those classes: Class Date 11.02.04 6 Unit/Lesson Vocabulary taught Unit 3 Shopkeeper, Best, Lesson 5 Headache Unit 3 Dangerous, Collect, Jar, Lesson 5 germ (Diary pages 110) 27.03.04 Class Date 11.02.04 7 Unit/Lesson Vocabulary taught Unit 1 Fierce, victorious, Lesson 121 during, incident Unit 3 Gymnast, practice, Lesson 5 postcard (Diary pages 1120) 27.03.04 famous 302 Secondary Teachers Training Class Date 11.02.04 8 (Diary pages 2130) Class 23.02.04 Date 23.02.04 10 Unit/Lesson Vocabulary taught Unit 3 Smithy, bang, Lesson 5 apprentice, spark Unit 3 Eggplant, scarecrow, Lesson 5 admire Unit/Lesson Vocabulary taught Unit 3 Convince, competent, Lesson 5 caring (Diary page 4150) Class Date 08.02.04 9 Unit/Lesson Vocabulary taught Unit 3 Acres, compulsory, Lesson 5 highway, pursue (Diary pages 3140) 303 Teaching English- 1 Section B: Students' record of vocabulary Ss may record vocabulary in small note books or in their exercise books They can write new words in alphabetical format Or in chronological order – according to when and in which EfT lesson they were introduced Ss may also record translations, definitions or pictures along with the new words Ss may record lexical sets (related groupings such as school subjects, or kinds of fruit) through spidergrams, so that their new words are categorised by topic Or by grammar, with all verbs together, all nouns, etc. Section C: Necessities of vocabulary practice/recycling activities a) To activate the words To enrich Ss’ vocabulary in the long term To make it more memorable To revise for tests/exams b) Yes it’s difficult because We don’t live in an English-speaking environment We don’t use these words in our daily lives We tend to memorise only for exams We don’t always understand the actual use of the word – we only memorise meanings We learn words in isolation, not in context. For all language learners, memorising is difficult. It needs practice and frequent revision. 304 Secondary Teachers Training Section C: Vocabulary practice activities Meaning (M) spelling (S), pronunciation (P) (It could be one, two or all of these) Activity M, S, P 1) T writes sentences on the board with gaps. The gaps are for words that SS have learnt before. SS copy the sentences and fill in the gaps. M, S 2) T writes or says 6 words in Bangla and SS write them in English. M, S 3) T says 6 words in English and SS write them in Bangla. M 4) T dictates 6 words to SS who write them down. S 5) SS ‘test’ each other in pairs – one chooses words from a recent lesson, says them, and the other writes them down. Then they change roles. Finally they check the meaning in their books. S, P 6) T writes 5 words on the board. SS have to write a short story that includes all the words. M, S 7) SS write the definitions (in English) of 6 words given by T. M 8) T writes 6 words on the board with a number (1-6) next to each word. T gives the definition of each and SS have to choose the correct words but just write the number. 9) T writes 6 words on the board but the letters are all mixed up. SS work in pairs to find the words and write them down. M 10) T gives the meanings of 6 words and SS have to write down the correct words. 305 S, P M, S Teaching English- 1 Section D : Summary of vocabulary teaching The importance of teaching vocabulary 1. For better self-expression 2. Helps to build language foundations 3. Can be more useful than grammar in communication 6 Techniques for teaching vocabulary 1. Definition 2. Realia 3. Pictures 4. Examples 5. Translation 6. Miming 3 Reasons for selecting vocabulary to present 1. May be central to the meaning of the text 2. May be a new word for the class 3. Should be a common and useful word 4 steps in presenting new words 1. Pronunciation practice 2. Clarifying meaning 3. Writing on the board 4. Practice What items would you expect to find in an ‘office’ vocabulary extension activity? 1. Items found in an office (computer, desk etc) 2. People who work in an office (secretary, director) 3. Activities (type, work, send emails, browse) 4. Places where you can find offices (ministry, school, factory) 5. Derivatives (official, officer) 306 Secondary Teachers Training Session 32 Title: Teaching Pronunciation 2 Introduction Pronounciation written in IPA 44 sounds consonants, vowels mistakes in plural sounds past form verbs Dictionary is the main source of getting correct pronunciation of individual words. In ‘Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English’, the pronunciation is written just after the word using two slashes. But the pronunciation is written in different alphabet which is known as IPAInternational Phonetic Alphabet. Though some sounds in IPA are similar to English letters, there are many new sounds, 44 in total, divided into two groups- vowels and consonants. Again, we do mistakes sometimes in pronunciation of plural nouns and past form ending verbs. The usual form of plural nouns is adding –s or –es and regular past form of verbs is adding –d or –ed. In each case, they have three kinds of pronunciation. This lesson deals mainly with the issues of using dictionary in terms of pronunciation, which aims at familiarizing IPA sounds and at the same time, with the varities of plural and past form of verbs. Objectives : By the end of the session, you will be able to exploit dictionaries for discovering the pronunciation of words identify individual sound values from phonemic script identified key difficulties in plural and past form sounds Section A Dictionary work for pronunciation Dictionary helps accurate pronunciation, monolingual dictionary must Dictionary helps us to know the accurate pronunciation of words. Each word is followed by correct pronunciation but it is not in English. To consult with a monolingual dictionary for pronunciation, to know the IPA sounds is a must. Select random words from the next page, which is a photocopied page from a dictionary. What problems do you face here for pronunciation? 307 Teaching English- 1 A typical page from a monolingual dictionary 308 Secondary Teachers Training Section B The phonemic chart 26 letters sound 44 IPA 20 vowels 24 consonants known phonemy phonetic/phonemic symbols English alphabet has 26 letters out of which 21 are consonants and 5 are vowels. But these 26 letters can produce 44 sounds which means there are 44 IPA sounds in English out of which 20 are vowels and 24 are consonants. These sounds are also known as phoneme or phonetic/phonemic symbols. Find out the pronunciation of the following words from the ‘Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English’ – cow, five, mad, oven, won, judge, pleasure, no, she, bough, cough, flew, shoe, boo. Write the different sounds you have got from the list above (consonants and vowels and if vowels, the sounds are single or double). Can you identify the difference of pronunciation between the following pairs of wordsa) sheep and ship,, b) boat and vote c) zoo and Jew Section c Plural and past form endings Voiced unvoiced sounds different plurals ‘s/es, past form-d/ed marker used The pronunciation of plural ending of cat (cats), dog (dogs) and bus(buses) is not the same. Similarly, the pronunciation of past form ending of pass (passed), play (played) and want (wanted) is not the same. This is because of the voiced and unvoiced sounds to which the plural (-s or –es) and past form (-d or –ed) marker is used. Find out the pronunciation of the following words from the dictionarya) socks, pens, bushes b) baked, planned, hated Can you differentiate the plural ending in group (a) and the past form ending in group (b)? Finally, transcribe the following sentences into IPA1. I have a pen. 2. She goes to school everyday. 3. Honesty is the best policy. 309 Teaching English- 1 Pronunciation Practice 2 Key Learning Points Sounds and letters: Sounds and letters are not the same. Sounds stand for pronunciation and letters for spelling. The English alphabet has 26 letters that can produce 44 sounds. Individually, each sound is known as a phoneme or symbol. So in English, there are 44 phonemes, which are also known as IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) phonemes. Out of 44, 20 are vowels and 24 are consonants. 20 vowels are divided again into two groups: 12 single vowels and 8 diphthongs (combination of two vowels). While writing, a sound is written between two slash bars (e.g. /p/), which identify the phoneme to distinguish them from the English letter. Vowels: It is a speech sound that is produced with no obstruction of the air stream in the mouth. We produce all sounds with the help of our vocal cords. Our vocal cords vibrate when we produce vowel sounds. 12 single vowels Sl. No. Vowels Examples with transcription 1 /i:/ heel/hi:l/, Seen/si:n/ 2 /ɪ/ hill/hɪl/, sin/sɪn/ 3 /e/ pen/pen/,men/men/ 4 /æ/ pan/pæn/, man/mæn/ 5 /ɑː/ march/mɑːrtʃ/, heart/hɑːt/ 6 /ɒ/ pot/pɒt/, hot/hɒt/ 7 /ɔː/ port/pɔːt/, hault/hɔːlt/ 8 /ʊ/ full/fʊl/, foot/fʊt/ 9 /u:/ fool/fu:l/, boot/bu:t/ 310 Secondary Teachers Training Sl. No. Vowels Examples with transcription 10 /ʌ/ but/bʌt/, hut/hʌt/ 11 /ɜː/ bird/bɜːd/, heard/hɜːd/ 12 /ə/ (schewa) about/əbaʊt/, above/əbʌv/ 8 diphthongs Sl. No. Diphthongs Examples with transcription 1 /eɪ/ tail/teɪl/, day/deɪ/ 2 /əʊ/ rose/rəʊz/, nose/nəʊz/ 3 /aɪ/ time/taɪm/, fine/faɪn/ 4 /aʊ/ cow/kaʊ/, how/haʊ/ 5 /ɔɪ/ joy/dʒɔɪ /, toy/tɔɪ/ 6 /ɪə/ ear/ɪə/, fear/fɪə/ 7 /eə/ air/eə/, chair/ tʃeə/ 8 /ʊə/ tour/tʊə/, poor/pʊə/ Consonant sounds: Consonants are speech sounds produced with complete or partial obstruction of the airflow through the mouth. 24 Consonant sounds are classified in two ways- according to the place of articulation (where formed) and manner of articulation (how formed). According to place of articulation, consonant sounds are divided into bilabial, alveolar, velar, dental, labio-dental, palatal, palato-alveolar and glottal. Again, according to the manner of articulation, consonant sounds are ded into plosives, fricatives, affricates, nasals, lateral, frictionless continuant and semi-vowels. For example, the sounds /p/ and /b/ are plosive according to the manner of articulation and bilabial according to 311 Teaching English- 1 the place of articulation. So these two sounds are called bilabial plosives. Furthermore, some consonant sounds are voiced and some are unvoiced. How Unvoiced Voiced formed Plosives Where Examples with formed transcription /p/ /b/ Bilabial pin/pɪn/, bin/bɪn/ /t/ /d/ Alveolar tail/teɪl/, day/deɪ/ /k/ /ɡ/ Velar come/kʌm/, go/gəʊ / Fricatives /f/ /v/ Labiodental /θ/ /ð/ Dental fine/faɪn/, very/verɪ/ thin/θɪn/, that/ðæt/ /s/ /z/ Alveolar sun/sʌn/, zoo/zu:/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ Palatoalveolar Affricates Nasals shy/ʃaɪ measure/meɪʒə/ /h/ - Glottal high/haɪ/ /tʃ/ /dʒ/ Palatoalveolar chain/tʃeɪn/, Bilabial mother/mʌðə/ /m/ 312 judge/ dʒʌdʒ / /, Secondary Teachers Training How Unvoiced Voiced formed Where Examples with formed transcription /n/ Alveolar nose/nəʊz/ /ŋ/ Velar song/sɒŋ/ Lateral /l/ Alveolar light/laɪt/ Frictionless /r/ Alveolar race/reɪs/ /w/ Bilabial we/wi:/ /j/ palatal yes/jes/ continuant Semivowels Voiced and unvoiced or voiceless sounds: Our vocal cords vibrate when we produce some sounds and these are voiced sounds. The pronunciation of the voiced sounds may be prolonged a little also. But at the time of pronouncing some sounds, our vocal cords don’t vibrate and these are unvoiced sounds. In English all the vowels and 15 consonants are voiced sounds where as only 9 consonants are unvoiced sounds. The unvoiced consonants are: /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /h/ Plural and past form sounds Plural sounds: Plural marker ‘s’ or ‘es’ has three types of pronunciation: /s/: For most words if the last sound of the singular form is voiceless (e.g. cat-cats/kæts/). /z/: If the last sound of the singular form is voiced, the voiced /z/ ending is used (e.g. dog-dogs/dɒɡz/. 313 Teaching English- 1 /ɪz/: If the last sound of the singular form of the noun is /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/ or /dʒ/ the /ɪz/ plural ending is used. e.g. horse-horses / hɔːsɪz/, match-matches/ mætʃɪz/. Past form sounds: Past form marker ‘d’ or ‘ed’ has three types of pronunciation,. These are: /t/: If the last sound of the verb is voiceless, the voiceless /t/ sound is used for the past tense ending, e.g. pass-passed/pɑːst/. /d/: If the last sound of the verb is voiced, the voiced /d/ ending is used. e.g. happen-happened/hæpend/. /ɪd/: If the last sound of the verb is /t/ or /d/, the /ɪd/ past tense ending is used, e.g. hate-hated/heɪtɪd/, invade-invaded/ɪnveɪdɪd/. Minimal Pairs: Pairs of words in a language which differ from each other by only one distinctive sound ( one phoneme or sound ) and which also differ in meaning are known as minimal pairs. For example, the words bear and tear, zoo and jew etc. Look at the following examples of minimal pairs: Sounds /i: / and /I/ a) sheep b) ship a) bean b) bin a) seat b) sit a) Look at that sheep! b) Look at that ship! Sounds /p / and / f / a) pan b) fan a) peel b) feel a) copy b) coffee 314 Secondary Teachers Training a) Could I have a copy please? b) Could I have a coffee please? Sounds / v / /b/ and a) vote b) boat a) van b) ban a) very b) berry a) A historical boat b) A historical vote Sounds / z / and /dz/ a) zoo b) Jew a) zest b) jest a) raze b) rage a) I like zoos b) I like Jews Assessment of your learning: Answer to the following questions briefly 1. How many IPA phonemes are there in English? Write the phonemes with examples. 2. Differentiate between sounds and letters. 315 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Teaching Pronunciation 2 Section B (1st part): cow/kaʊ/ five/faɪv/ mad/mæd/ oven/ʌvn/ won/wʌn/ judge/dzʌdz/ pleasure/pleʒə(r)/ no/nəʊ/ she/ʃi:/ bough/baʊ/ Same spelling but different pronunciation cough/kɒf/ flew/flu:/ Different spelling but same pronunciation shoe/ʃu:/ boo/bu:/ Section B (2nd part): sheep/ʃi:p/ boat/bəʊt/ zoo/ʒu:/ ship/ʃɪp/ vote/vəʊt/ jew/dzu:/ In the 1st pair, only vowel in the middle is different In the 2nd pair, only the initial consonant is different In the 3rd pair, only the terminal vowel is different 316 Secondary Teachers Training Section C: a) socks/sɒks/ pens/penz/ bushes/bʊʃɪz/ In socks, the plural marker –s is pronounced as /s/ In pens, the plural marker –s is pronounced as /z/ In bushes, the plural marker –es is pronounced as /ɪz/ b) baked/beɪ kt/ planned/plænd/hated/heɪtɪd/ In baked, the past form marker –d is pronounced as /t/ In planned, the past form marker is pronounced as /d/ In hated, the past form marker –(e)d is pronounced as /ɪd/ Transcription: a) I have a pen// aɪ hav ə pen// b) She goes to school everyday// ʃi: gəʊz tə sku:l evrideɪ// c) Honesty is the best policy//ɒnɪstɪ iz ð ə best pɒlɪsɪ// ...................... ...................... 317 Teaching English- 1 Session 33 Teaching Pronunciation 3 Introduction: English stressed language stress intonation, important pronunciation difficult spelling different require habit formation needs more use of language English is a stress-timed language. It means that the length of time between each stressed syllable is always about the same, and if there are several unstressed syllables, they must be said more quickly. This is why vowels tend to be reduced in unstressed syllables. In English, using stress and intonation is an important phenomenon for pronunciation. However, this issue presents a great difficulty to our learners. This is because of the fact that English spelling and pronunciation are entirely two different things. Whereas in Bangla they learn the pronunciation from spelling, in case of English, this is totally different things. Though there are some rules of using stress and intonation, it is very difficult to use stress and intonation properly just memorizing the rules. The art of using stress and intonation is acquired through habit formation. It needs more and more use of language. Therefore, it is a continuous process to develop the teachers’ own pronunciation especially using stress and intonation. At the same time, the teacher should know the techniques of teaching pronunciation to his/her students. This lesson focuses on all these issues related to pronunciation. 318 Secondary Teachers Training Objectives: By the end of the session, you will be able to use stress, intonation and connected speech in the pronunciation of English explore a range of simple classroom techniques for teaching pronunciation improve your own pronunciation of English Section A: Stress: Emphasis on particular syllable of word commonly known accent seen as (‘) bubble (0) zero types word and sentence stress Stress is the emphasis on a particular syllable or word. Some syllables or words are pronounced with more strength than others. Stress is commonly known as an accent. It is put on a syllable or word, which is said with more force than the surrounding syllables or words. Stress is indicated with a vertical line ( ‘ ) or bubble( 0 ) above the stressed syllable or word. Stress is of two types: word stress and sentence stress. Now, use stress mark on the appropriate syllable of the following words: conduct (n) conduct (v) present (n) present (v) concentration educational institute complicated honorarium competitive 319 Teaching English- 1 Again, use stress mark on the appropriate word of the following sentencesa) Sneha goes shopping everyday. b) I would like to buy a dictionary. c) The name of our country is Bangladesh. Section B Intonation: The rise and fall in the pitch of the voice in speech is Rise and fall of voice intonation two patterns falling or glide down or rising or glide up rising for questions falling for statements intonation. It is very close to sentence stress. In normal English speech, there are two major intonation patterns. These are: the falling intonation or ‘glide down’ and the rising intonation or ‘glide up’. The rising intonation usually indicates questions and the falling intonation indicates a statement or an answer. Besides, there are variations depending on the meaning of the utterances. The most common way to mark intonation is through rising and falling arrows. Use intonation (glide up or glide down) on the following dialogue- 320 Secondary Teachers Training Dialogue for pronunciation practice Nibras: What’s the date today, Pushpita? Pushpita: The 10th of July. Nibras: Really? It’ll be my birthday soon. Pushpita: When is it, Nibras? Nibras: On the twenty-first. I’ll be fourteen. Pushpita: Your fourteenth birthday? Nibras: No, I’ll be fourteen, but it’s my fifteenth birthday. Pushpita: Oh yes, of course. OK, I’m going to buy a gift for you. Nibras: Really? How exciting! When’s your birthday, Pushpita? Pushpita: On the 3rd of December. I’ll be fifteen… Section C Teaching techniques Using stress and intonation is not an easy task. Teaching these elements Teaching stress, intonation difficult for non native teachers practise through audio cassettes or English movies help accurate use of stress and intonative of pronunciation is more difficult. The easiest way of teaching stress and intonation is to bring the students to the contact of native speakers. We can do it using audio cassettes or watching English movie. Above all, more and more practice can help us to be accurate in using stress and intonation. The non-native speakers find it difficult to understand this typical feature of English. There is frequent rise and fall in normal English speech. This is due to English stress and intonation. The non-native speakers learn it through practice and from his/her environment. The teacher of English needs to pay attention to this feature of English, which plays a significant role in everyday speech and communication. Failure to 321 Teaching English- 1 understand stress and intonation properly may lead to funny situations besides obstructing communication. Find out some ways/techniques through which stress and intonation can be taught in the classroom. You can start here: 1. ..................................................... 2. ..................................................... 3. ..................................................... 4. ..................................................... 322 Secondary Teachers Training Teaching Pronunciation 3 Key Learning Points Stress: In English, stress is an important feature of pronunciation, unlike Bangla where stress and intonation are almost absent except in formal language or recitation. In a normal English sentence, certain words are stressed and certain words are unstressed, for example, the word p©hotograph where the stress is on the 1st syllable and rest are unstressed. The vowels in the unstressed syllables are reduced. Again in the word Phot©ography, the stress is on the second syllable. In some words, the stress is on the first syllable when they are used as nouns, adjectives and the stress is on the second syllable when they are used as verbs, for example: Noun/Adjective Verbs address address present present conduct conduct record record Word stress: Word stress is the emphasis on a syllable within a word. Every word is made up of syllables. Words with more than one syllable give particular emphasis to one of those syllables. e.g. Banglad'esh, Jap'an, Ind'ia. 323 Teaching English- 1 There is no simple way of knowing which syllable(s) to be stressed in words, though each English word has a definite place for stress. However, there are some general rules which can help us determine the stress in words. It depends on the word class( parts of speech), word ending, suffix etc. e.g. r'ecord(noun), rec'ord(verb), convers'ation, em'ergency, cert'ificate etc. Rules of using word stress: a) Stress on the first syllable: All words of more than one syllable are stressed. All nouns like head, book and adjectives like good, long, bad etc. are stressed but most two syllable nouns and adjectives have stress on the first syllable, e.g. rebel, butter, perfect, pretty etc. b) Stress on last syllable: Principal verbs like eat, love, take are stressed but most two syllable verbs have stress on the last syllable, e.g. record, conduct etc. c) Stress on penultimate syllables(second from the end): Words ending with ‘ic’ , ‘ical’, ‘sion’, ‘tion’, ‘ion’ or ‘sive’ have stress on the penultimate syllable, e.g. microscopic, biological, division, conversation, religion, aggressive etc. d) Stress on the ante-penultimate syllable (3rd from the end): Words ending with ‘cy’, ‘ty’, ‘phy’, ‘gy’, ‘al’ or ‘ial’ have stress on the ante-penultimate syllable, e.g. reliability, philosophy, phonology, geographical, managerial etc. 324 Secondary Teachers Training e) Stress on polysyllabic words: These words usually have more than one stress- a primary stress and a secondary stress. Often such words contain a prefix such as ‘inter’ and ‘anti’ etc. and this prefix has a secondary stress. This is common with technical words, such as- &international, &prerequisite, &unforgettable, &antilogarithm etc. f) Stress on compound words: If the compound word is a noun, stress goes on the first syllable but if the word is an adjective or verb, stress goes on second syllable, e.g. schoolmaster, hardworking, understand etc. g) In some compound words, both prefix and the main words are stressed, e.g. unknown, redecorate etc. h) Monosyllabic or purely grammatical words are unstressed, e.g. for, the, an etc. i) Words with the following endings are usually stressed on the ending itself. -ee: degree, guarantee -eer: engineer, pioneer -ette: cigarette, gazette -ique: technique, unique Sentence stress: In sentence stress, certain words are stressed within a sentence. It is clearly unnatural to stress all words in a sentence. Usually the key or content words are stressed whereas the function or grammatical words are unstressed. e.g. 325 Teaching English- 1 ( bubble is used above the stressed words) I am going to the market tomorrow. You are requested to remit some money because I’ve bought a television. Intonation: Like stress, focus, and rhythm, intonation is also a means of conveying the message. It is indeed a very powerful but finer means for the grasp of which a lot of effort and practice are intensely involved on the part of the practitioners. When we speak, the pitch of our voice keeps on changing, sometimes it goes up or high and sometimes it is down or low and the different pitches of the voce combine to form tunes. This change in pitch is not totally aimless or without any purpose. It, in fact, involves an act of signaling a message from the speaker- a message steeped in the speaker’s feeling at that moment- feeling of certainty, hesitance, anger, happiness, gratefulness, kindness, firmness, directness etc. Just as a change of stress indicates a change of meaning of a word or a sentence, so is the change of pitch. Stress and pitch, in fact, go hand in hand to imply or convey the massage of an utterance. The function of intonation is to convey attitudinal or emotional meanings and is very closely associated with the context of an utterance. In normal English speech there are two major intonation patterns. They are: the falling intonation or ‘glide down’ and the rising intonation or ‘glide 326 Secondary Teachers Training up’. The rising intonation usually indicates questions and the falling intonation indicates a statement or an answer. Besides, there are variations depending on the meaning of the utterances. Basically, there are two functions of intonation. 1. it indicates grammatical meaning, e.g. ‘He lives in Dhaka’ – indicates a statement. ‘He lives in Dhaka?’ –indicates a question. 2. it can indicate the speaker’s attitudes, e.g. ‘Really?’ –indicates surprise or disbelief. ‘Really.’ –indicates normal attitude. The most important thing about intonation is that almost all the intonation in an utterance occurs on the main stressed syllable, and we know that the main stressed syllables carry most of the meaning. To cite an example, the mono-syllabic word ‘yes’ may be uttered with a falling tone as well as a rising tone. It is short and it informs one tone group. It is the nucleus too. When it is spoken with a falling tone ‘yes’, it means definite affirmative; there retains no doubt or uncertainty in the speaker’s mind but when it is spoken with a rising tone ‘yes’, it may suggest some hesitation or reservation on the part of the speaker; it is not a definite affirmative. 327 Teaching English- 1 Techniques of teaching pronunciation: To teach pronunciation to the students in the classroom, the following techniques may be applied: - For sounds, the minimal pair exercise may be an excellent way to distinguish between and practice difficult sounds. Finding examples is important, as is regular drilling, both for individuals and chorally. - For stress, drilling is also important. As we have seen, stressed syllables and stressed words can be recorded clearly on the board using bubbles. - Drilling needs to be clear and sharp, so the teacher can make use of hand gestures to make everyone start and finish at the same time. - Getting the class to clap or tap the table can also help keep the rhythm of words and sentences. - With intonation, drilling is essential. Using hands while speaking, and arrows on the board, can help make things visual as well as depending on having a good ear. Ask students to also sweep up and down with their arms while repeating the sentences. 328 Secondary Teachers Training Assessment of your Learning 1. What is a stress? What is its purpose? 2. What is intonation? How can we indicate an intonation mark? 3. As a teacher, how will you teach pronunciation to your students in the English classroom at your school? 329 Teaching English- 1 Probable Answers Section A: (The bold syllables are stressed. You can use bubble or vertical line on the stressed syllables). 1) Conduct 2) Conduct 3) Present 5) Concentration 6) Educational 4) Present 7) Institute 8) Complicated 9) Honorarium 10) Competitive Section A: Strees a) Sneha goes shopping everyday. b) I would like to buy a dictionary. c) The name of our country is Bangladesh Section B: Nibras: What’s the date today, Pushpita? Pushpita: The 1st of July. Nibras: Really? It’ll be my birthday soon. Pushpita: When is it, Nibras? 330 Secondary Teachers Training Nibras: On the twenty-first. I’ll be fourteen. Pushpita: Your fourteenth birthday? Nibras: No, I’ll be fourteen, but it’s my fifteenth birthday. Pushpita: Oh yes, of course. OK, I’m going to buy a gift for you. Nibras: Really? How exciting! When’s your birthday, Pushpita? Pushpita: On the 3rd of December. I’ll be fifteen… Section C: May vary person to person. 331
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